Data and analytics: Myth Takes

russell scibetti

Vice president, strategy and business intelligence, New York Giants

It’s not a magic pill. Any use of analytics needs context and application. What do we do with what the numbers say? The numbers themselves don’t change anything.”

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aj maestas

Founder and CEO, Navigate Research

The myth is that our industry has truly embraced data and analytics on the business side. It’s certainly true on the field, but off it, there are plenty of sports professionals that dismiss data and insights as biased or something that can be used to tell any story someone wants to tell. There are still far more decisions made with bias stemming from someone’s personal experience than from biased analytics, and when decision-makers are still largely from older generations, it’s no wonder sports has struggled to adapt to younger generations.”

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neda tabatabaie

Vice president, business analytics and technology, San Jose Sharks

Sometimes people think more is better. It’s the whole Big Data. Then they have it and they’re like, ‘OK, now what?’ I’d rather have one piece of data that I can make actionable versus all of this data that I’m not doing anything with.”

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jeff eccleston

Global head of insights and analytics, CAA Brand Consulting

Sometimes we deal with clients who feel they have to report on every single metric that is available. What we like to remind clients sometimes is that not everything that can be measured actually matters, and not everything that matters can actually be measured. I think it’s really about understanding what is important, what does success look like, what are we trying to achieve from this partnership and then putting a set of metrics in place that actually align with that.”

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jessica gelman

CEO, Kraft Analytics Group

The definition of analytics is inconsistent. People who have the role and title of analytics, some of them are just working in Excel, others are coding in Python. The level of sophistication really varies widely. That’s in part because the sophistication across leagues and organizations varies widely.”

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brendan mcgeehan

Director of SPAN-360, Spectra Analytics

Some organizations, teams or clients may feel they need to go to from zero to 60 right away. That’s going from no capability to having full built-out predictive modeling and advanced analytics. You maybe need to crawl before you walk and understand what you do have and what you draw conclusions from based on that before you go [all in] into advanced analytics.”

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don white

Co-founder, Satisfi Labs

A myth is that it’s easy to interpret and insights are clear. That’s not the case. Data is meant to fortify what you are trying to prove is true or not true. It doesn’t always give you obvious things. It usually supports a case you are already considering.”

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brandon schneider

CRO, Golden State Warriors

There are cases where people get too cute. They’re like, I’m going to measure everything and then figure out later what’s actionable. We want to be a little more efficient.”

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cam kelly

CMO, Complexity Gaming

That esports eclipses the viewership of traditional sports. Pick one, they [some brands, media rights holders] have done it. It’s like saying, ‘Entertainment eclipses sports,’ like, what are we talking about? That stuff drives us nuts. It’s a failure and disservice overall.”