9781422285237 - Analytics: Sports Stats & More

was indeed over-swinging his tee shots and second shots. By cutting back on that, his game immediately improved. He tied the 36-hole British Open scoring record and went on to finish third. Later that season, he won the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup. Once the thirty-fifth-ranked player in the world, Snedeker soared to number four, a surge that began with a discussion about statistics. The future for sports analytics is incrediblybright. Snedeker is living proof. Thanks to the stats-driven improvement in his game, he earned nearly $12 million from 2012 through 2014. Talk about impact! The Future While some baseball teams more than others have embraced the industry for years, other sports are looking for that “competitive edge” that can help their franchise to gain that advantage. The NFL remains the elephant in the room. Some football teams are beginning to have their practices analyzed, to see if they are spending their time working on the plays that most impact a game. For example, are teams spending only five percent of their practice time on special teams plays when those events actually make up 13 percent of the game action?

56 C areers O ff the F ield • Analytics: Sports Stats and More