How to become a Sports Analyst?

Do you love sports and have a deep passion for analyzing games? If you enjoy predicting in-game strategies and outcomes, then a career as a sports analyst might be perfect for you. Sports analysts provide insights and expert opinions on team and player performance. They hone their knowledge and skills to deliver commentary or identify trends in the match. 

Sports analytics uses statistics to assist the owners of sports entities for increased growth and stability in the business. 

In this article we will be discussing the sports analyst career path in detail.

Introduction to Sports Analytics

Sports analytics is the application of data analysis and statistical methods to gain insights and make informed decisions in the world of sports. It involves collecting, processing, and interpreting data related to various aspects of athletic performance, player evaluation, game strategy, and team management. By harnessing the power of data, sports analyst education aims to enhance performance, optimize training methods, and maximize competitive advantage.

In today’s highly competitive sporting landscape, where even the smallest advantage can make a significant difference, sports analytics has become an essential tool. It provides teams, coaches, and athletes with objective and evidence-based information to understand strengths and weaknesses, identify patterns and trends, and make data-driven decisions. By leveraging analytics, teams can assess player performance, improve game strategies, manage injuries, and make informed decisions during player acquisitions and contract negotiations. A study suggests that by 2025 the sports analytics market will go up $4.5 billion. 

Different Types of Sports Analysis

Most sports use different forms of analysis to measure distances, speeds, or heart rates and conduct analysis. Differences between On-Field and Off-Field Analytics are listed below.

On-Field Analytics	Off-Field Analytics
It involves several methodologies to analyze the performance by changing in-game strategies or nutrition levels.	It involves the analysis of data and statistics related to the business operations of a sports organization.
It covers tracking key on-field metrics for player selection decisions or improving overall team performance.	It covers recruitment, player development, and product development.
Coaches, players, and analysts understand a team’s or player’s performance through this.	Through off-field analytics, analysts deal with fan engagement, revenue streams, sponsorship deals, and merchandise sales for business operations.

Who is a Sports Analyst?

Sports analysts study data and statistics to provide insights into different sports’ player performance, team behavior, and strategy. They need a high degree of analytical skills, knowledge of sports, and a passion for sports events. 

Role and Responsibilities of a Sports Analyst

Sports analysts employ their strong analytical and research skills to publish sports-related stories for broadcasting. People pursuing this career work for online media resources, print publications, newspapers, or radio and TV stations. 

Qualifications Needed for a Sports Analyst Role

To become a sports analyst, students must have their bachelor’s or master’s degree in media, journalism, data science or analysis, management, etc. Most sports analysts choose to broadcast to pursue their degree in Journalism or communication. If you have a strong mathematical and statistics background, then Data Science or Business Analytics will be a favorable option. 

How to Enter the Field of Sports Analytics?

The sports analyst job requirements are as follow-

• Work Experience Or Internships

Universities have Journalism departments providing opportunities for students to develop their broadcasting skills. If a student performs well in the athletic department as a player, they can intern as an athletic trainer, player, volunteer, student manager, or coach.

• Learn Coding

Sports Analysts should learn different programming languages like Python and R to manipulate and retrieve data when necessary. It allows the analysts to automate data collection for performance prediction, team clustering, or pattern recognition by saving time and effort. 

• Opt for Online Courses

A Bachelor’s degree alone cannot provide the required knowledge in this field. Students can enroll for online certifications for free in several courses like regression analysis, hypothesis testing, multivariate analysis, Excel, etc. It helps to gain soft skills or computer abilities allowing students to perform better in the sports analyst role. 

Skills Required For Sports Analytics

Becoming a sports analyst is difficult with just bookish knowledge or a degree. Some other skills needed for sports analysts are- 

• Develop technical skills in data modeling and statistical analysis.

• Understanding of sports rules, strategies, and terminology.
• Ability to interpret and communicate complex data insights to non-technical stakeholders.
• Algorithms of machine learning and techniques of predictive modeling.
• Strong problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.
• Ability to work with large datasets and handle data cleaning and preprocessing.
• Passion for sports and a desire to uncover meaningful insights to improve performance.

Tools Used in Sports Analytics

The following are a few tools used in sports analytics-

• Tableau and Power BI are tools that help communicate with management and coaches. 
• Data visualization tools like graphs, charts, and dashboards help understand complex data easily. 
• Statistical software tools include R and SAS that facilitate data manipulation, modeling, and visualization. 
• Machine learning and predictive modeling tools include sci-kit-learn, TensorFlow, and Keras. 
• Data collection tools like GPS trackers, accelerometers, etc. 

Career Prospects For Sports Analysts

At the professional level, sports analysts fall under statistics and analytical fields. Want to know more about Data visualization?

Let’s find out the different sports analyst job opportunities–

• Performance Analyst: 

They analyze individual sports persons or teams to determine their weaknesses, strengths, and improvements. These analysts use statistical and video analyses to track data and provide solutions to coaches and athletes.

• Sports Data Scientist: 

These people work with different sports datasets to uncover patterns, trends, and relationships by applying statistical model tools. It predicts the outcome of a match, player performance, and team strategies. 

• Player Personnel Analyst:

This role is confined to evaluating one single player’s skills, potential, and fitness. It includes assessing the player’s metrics and scouting reports for player recruitment and trade decisions.

• Sports Analysts Researcher: 

These analysts conduct detailed investigations on biomechanics, injury prevention, sports psychology, or sports nutrition. Their studies contribute to the development of sports training methodologies.

• Sports Business Analyst: 

These sports analysts use data to drive decision-making in generating revenue, boosting ticket sales, and increasing fan engagement and sponsorship. It optimizes sports financial performance and enhances the fan experience for a match.

Entry-level sports analysts earn around 3LPA, going upto 17LPA at the senior level with experience. Different companies hiring sports analysts include Decathlon, Nielsen Sports, HUDL, Sportstec India, etc. 

Future of Sports Analytics 

Sports analytics is gaining popularity among teams, sponsors, and broadcasters as it helps to obtain the necessary competitive edge in the sports industry. There are technological advancements and trending patterns with AI and ML to interpret large amounts of data. It will become more accessible shortly for its user-friendly interfaces like interactive dashboards and data visualizations. Fans can now access real-time insights and analysis on player performance and team statistics.

Conclusion

Becoming sports analysts require an amalgamation of passion, knowledge, and dedication. It starts with loving a field of sports and slowly unraveling the game’s intricacies. Aspiring sports analysts should diversify their game knowledge by staying updated on all kinds of games and gaming strategies. Presenting findings through compelling visuals, reports, and storytelling not only captivates audiences but also enhances the impact of the analysis. 

Being able to articulate complex analysis concisely and understandably is what sets exceptional sports analysts apart.

Online Manipal is the perfect platform to choose the right online program for a career in sports analytics. You can find top-rated online degree and certificate programs from prestigious institutions like Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE).