In the modern era of sports, technology has massively impacted the way professional sports are played, for better or worse depending on your point of view. Particularly, the rise of analytics has been a crucial factor in driving pro leagues to be more and more competitive each year.

You might not think looking at sports data affects the way you win or lose a game, but these days it very much does. From other teams analyzing your playstyle through acquired data to counter your playstyle, to a coach looking at possible new player statistics, data is single-handedly changing professional sports. That’s why, in this article, we’ll discuss how data is changing professional sports including how it helps get more people engaged, how new talent is acquired on professional teams and how each player and coach can use these statistics to better their game.

Increasing fan engagement and viewership

At first, it might not seem too obvious, but many of these leagues use their data to increase overall fan engagement. In turn, by looking at the raw numbers from previous years/seasons, data analysts can formulate factors such as the set price of ticket sales, how many fans are most likely going to the game, how many seats were sold out/will be sold out and even more. From the side of the pro league using these statistics, it’s fairly obvious to see that analyzing acquired data helps drive in new and recurring fans to have them contribute to the league in some way.

As a fan of the sport, you may even be able to track your favorite team or players’ stats, giving you really good insight on what teams to back. The combination of all of these data analysis factors allows for better social media representation, more accurate pre-game insights and overall higher fan engagement. Being able to visually see how your favorite players or teams are performing game by game is just another of the many ways that data is changing professional sports for the better!

Talent Acquisition

Of course, when it comes to acquiring new players to your professional roster, you as a coach will want to look at player statistics, especially before signing any contracts. This factor alone is a huge reason why data is changing professional sports, as it allows coaches and other analysts to truly see the ‘numbers’ a player can output in a given environment, whether it’s number of wins, goals, points, assists, etc.

It’s far from easy to evaluate the potential of a player, let alone the price for trades and transfers, which is why we need data like this to make proper acquisitions. Without the inclusion of sports data, there would be no way to gauge how good a player or team is other than by watching them in the moment. In the end, data is changing talent acquisition for the better by allowing recruiters to see and compare raw data before spending a large sum of money on new players, effectively saving their team money.

Player and coaching performance optimization

Now at the pinnacle of sports performance, every team in every sport will look at sports data to help with the way they play. This can include coming up with a game plan to counter your opponent or even which players on the other team are the best. In modern sports, you most likely won’t find any team that doesn’t use data analytics to better their day-to-day gameplay.

It’s a perfectly fair and legal way for coaches and players to gain an edge over their competitors (assuming they aren’t doing the same), strictly by looking at the numbers accumulated from previous seasons. Knowing you’re coming up against a strong opposing team or one of the best players in the world, you may want to change your game plan, which is only possible to do correctly if you’re looking at data from how the opposing team performed in previous games. All of these are just by-products from the rise of data being used in professional sports environments, none of which fundamentally harm the nature of the sport itself.