Books
Analytic Methods in Sports: Using Mathematics and Statistics to Understand Data from Baseball, Football, Basketball, and Other Sports – by Thomas A. Severini, 2014, 254 pages, Paperback – The Most Useful Techniques for Analyzing Sports Data One of the greatest changes in the sports world in the past 20 years has been the use of mathematical methods to analyze performances, recognize trends and patterns, and predict results. Analytic Methods in Sports: Using Mathematics and Statistics to Understand Data from Baseball, Football, Basketball, and Other Sports provides a concise yet thorough introduction to the analytic and statistical methods that are useful in studying sports. The book gives you all the tools necessary to answer key questions in sports analysis. It explains how to apply the methods to sports data and interpret the results, demonstrating that the analysis of sports data is often different from standard statistical analysis. Requiring familiarity with mathematics but no previous background in statistics, the book integrates a large number of motivating sports examples throughout and offers guidance on computation and suggestions for further reading in each chapter.
Sports Analytics: A Guide for Coaches, Managers, and Other Decision Makers – by Benjamin C. Alamar, 2013, 152 pages, Paperback – Benjamin C. Alamar founded the first journal dedicated to sports statistics, the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports. He developed and teaches a class on sports analytics for managers at the University of San Francisco and has published numerous cutting-edge studies on strategy and player evaluation. Today, he co-chairs the sports statistics section of the International Statistics Institute and consults with several professional teams and businesses in sports analytics. There isn’t a better representative of this emerging field to show diverse organizations how to implement analytics into their decision-making strategies, especially as analytic tools grow increasingly complex. Alamar provides a clear, easily digestible survey of the practice and a detailed understanding of analytics’ vast possibilities. He explains how to evaluate different programs and put them to use. Using concrete examples from professional sports teams and case studies demonstrating the use and value of analytics in the field, Alamar designs a roadmap for managers, general managers, and other professionals as they build their own programs and teach their approach to others.
Sports Analytics and Data Science: Winning the Game with Methods and Models – by Thomas W. Miller, 2015, 352 pages, Hardback
TO BUILD WINNING TEAMS AND SUCCESSFUL SPORTS BUSINESSES, GUIDE YOUR DECISIONS WITH DATA This up-to-the-minute reference will help you master all three facets of sports analytics – and use it to win! Sports Analytics and Data Science is the most accessible and practical guide to sports analytics for everyone who cares about winning and everyone who is interested in data science. You’ll discover how successful sports analytics blends business and sports savvy, modern information technology, and sophisticated modeling techniques. You’ll master the discipline through realistic sports vignettes and intuitive data visualizations-not complex math. Thomas W. Miller, leader of Northwestern University’s pioneering program in predictive analytics, guides you through defining problems, identifying data, crafting and optimizing models, writing effective R and Python code, interpreting your results, and more. Every chapter focuses on one key sports analytics application. Miller guides you through assessing players and teams, predicting scores and making game-day decisions, crafting brands and marketing messages, increasing revenue and profitability, and much more. Step by step, you’ll learn how analysts transform raw data and analytical models into wins: both on the field and in any sports business. Whether you’re a team executive, coach, fan, fantasy player, or data scientist, this guide will be a powerful source of competitive advantage…in any sport, by any measure. All data sets, extensive R and Python code, and additional examples available for download at https://www.ftpress.com/miller/ This exceptionally complete and practical guide to sports data science and modeling teaches through realistic examples from sports industry economics, marketing, management, performance measurement, and competitive analysis. Thomas W. Miller, faculty director of Northwestern University’s pioneering Predictive Analytics program, shows how to use advanced measures of individual and team performance to judge the competitive position of both individual athletes and teams, and to make more accurate predictions about their future performance. Miller’s modeling techniques draw on methods from economics, accounting, finance, classical and Bayesian statistics, machine learning, simulation, and mathematical programming. Miller illustrates them through realistic case studies, with fully worked examples in both R and Python. Sports Analytics and Data Science will be an invaluable resource for everyone who wants to seriously investigate and more accurately predict player, team, and sports business performance, including students, teachers, sports analysts, sports fans, trainers, coaches, and team and sports business managers. It will also be valuable to all students of analytics and data science who want to build their skills through familiar and accessible sports applications.
Mathletics: How Gamblers, Managers, and Sports Enthusiasts Use Mathematics in Baseball, Basketball, and Football Paperback – by Wayne L. Winston, 2012 – Mathletics is a remarkably entertaining book that shows readers how to use simple mathematics to analyze a range of statistical and probability-related questions in professional baseball, basketball, and football, and in sports gambling. How does professional baseball evaluate hitters? Is a singles hitter like Wade Boggs more valuable than a power hitter like David Ortiz? Should NFL teams pass or run more often on first downs? Could professional basketball have used statistics to expose the crooked referee Tim Donaghy? Does money buy performance in professional sports? In Mathletics, Wayne Winston describes the mathematical methods that top coaches and managers use to evaluate players and improve team performance, and gives math enthusiasts the practical tools they need to enhance their understanding and enjoyment of their favorite sports–and maybe even gain the outside edge to winning bets. Mathletics blends fun math problems with sports stories of actual games, teams, and players, along with personal anecdotes from Winston’s work as a sports consultant. Winston uses easy-to-read tables and illustrations to illuminate the techniques and ideas he presents, and all the necessary math concepts–such as arithmetic, basic statistics and probability, and Monte Carlo simulations–are fully explained in the examples. After reading Mathletics, you will understand why baseball teams should almost never bunt, why football overtime systems are unfair, why points, rebounds, and assists aren’t enough to determine who’s the NBA’s best player–and much, much more. In a new epilogue, Winston discusses the stats and numerical analysis behind some recent sporting events, such as how the Dallas Mavericks used analytics to become the 2011 NBA champions.
Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played and Games Are Won – by Tobias Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim, 2012, 288 pages, Paperback – In Scorecasting, University of Chicago behavioral economist Tobias Moskowitz teams up with veteran Sports Illustrated writer L. Jon Wertheim to overturn some of the most cherished truisms of sports, and reveal the hidden forces that shape how basketball, baseball, football, and hockey games are played, won and lost. Drawing from Moskowitz’s original research, as well as studies from fellow economists such as bestselling author Richard Thaler, the authors look at the influence home-field advantage has on the outcomes of games in all sports and why it exists; the surprising truth about the universally accepted axiom that defense wins championships; the subtle biases that umpires exhibit in calling balls and strikes in key situations; the unintended consequences of referees’ tendencies in every sport to “swallow the whistle”, and more. Among the insights that Scorecasting reveals: Why Tiger Woods is prone to the same mistake in high-pressure putting situations that you and I are; Why professional teams routinely overvalue draft picks; The myth of momentum or the “hot hand” in sports, and why so many fans, coaches, and broadcasters fervently subscribe to it; why NFL coaches rarely go for a first down on fourth-down situations – even when their reluctance to do so reduces their chances of winning. In an engaging narrative that takes us from the putting greens of Augusta to the grid iron of a small parochial high school in Arkansas, Scorecasting will forever change how you view the game, whatever your favorite sport might be.”
Football Betting Books – The 2019 Shortlist
The Football Betting Science by Gary Christie, 2006, 96 pages
Are you tired of allowing the bookmakers to carry on taking your cash? If so, then what you need is the highly innovative and comprehensive guide to creative football betting! “The Football Betting Science” takes a scientific and often far from conventional view to a game that can, when approached the right way, lead to large profits season after season.
This guide teaches and encourages you to be creative and very different when choosing your football bets. This guide will open your eyes to a whole new way of thinking when it comes to the betting industry, particularly in football which is such an exciting sport to watch, and even more so when you have money riding on it! Gary Christie is a professional sports writer and gambler. He is a regular contributor to the sporting media, appearing on programmes for AtTheRaces and writing for publications such as In The Know Magazine and the Mirror Group’s Sunday Sun. A successful horse-racing gambler, Gary has now turned his attention to the rapidly growing football betting market. Applying his original and creative approaches, he has produced a detailed guide on what it takes to be successful in football betting.
The Definitive Guide to Betting on Football by Kevin Pullein, 2009, 160 pages
“The Definitive Guide to Betting on Football” is a distillation of “Racing Post” expert Kevin Pullein’s extensive knowledge on how to make money when betting on football. His weekly column in the “Post” is hugely popular with sports betting fans.
In this masterwork, Pullein explains how you can work out what is likely to happen during a football match and how you might be able to exploit this knowledge profitably by betting.
In each chapter there will be both theory and practice, in separate but complementary sections.
The theory will always be simply explained and illustrated, and will satisfy both the more-specialist and the less-experienced reader alike, each of whom will be able to get out of it want they want most – as well as a lot of other things beside.
Topics include first and second half betting, corners, first goalscorer, final result, bookings, spread betting, betting exchanges and ante post.
Football Betting: How to Increase Your Chances of Winning, by Francis Okumu, 2016, 39 pages (quick read!)
Football Betting – How To Increase Your Chances Of Winning. Every few decades, a book is published that changes the lives of its intended readers forever.
The contents of this material have been deeply researched, carefully woven and presented in a simple, yet profound manner, to effectively walk you through the whole journey of increasing your chances of winning football bets.
Some of the most invaluable topics covered herein include:
i) How to increase your chances of winning every time you bet,
ii) How to increase your chances of winning football jackpots,
iii) What to look for before picking teams/matches to bet on,
iv) Two things to help you win big, v) How to use multi bets to win big and consistently,
vi) How to make consistent profits, every time,
vii) the 21 best sites for football predictions,
viii) the 15 best sites for football analysis,
ix) Six major reasons why you keep losing your bets.
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