MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference to bring sports industry leaders to Boston on February 27 - 28, 2015

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- It is the world's largest conference dedicated to sports analytics and business. In 2014, Sports Illustrated called SSAC "a must attend event for some of the brightest and most innovative minds in sports and analytics." That same year its cutting-edge content trended third nationally on Twitter. Now, this year's edition of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is bringing to Boston industry experts, team owners, league executives, coaches, players, academics, and students from top-tier universities with a fresh view of the impact of analytics in sports- both on and off the field.

The two-day conference will feature three league commissioners as speakers, a first in the conference's history: Rob Manfred (MLB), Adam Silver (NBA), and Don Garber (MLS). Also slated to attend are more than 300 sports industry organizations from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, EPL, WNBA, NCAA, the U.S. Olympic Committee, NASCAR and many more.

With a record 3000+ people attending this year, tickets sold out by mid-December and the waitlist has climbed to more than 1,800 people. There is still an opportunity, however, to catch the action: select panels will be spotlighted through a live webcast, which can be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/42analytics. Tweets can be followed at @SloanSportsConf and hashtag #SSAC.

The 2015 Conference will feature three league commissioners as speakers, a first in the conference's history.

They will be joined by an all-star lineup of 100+ speakers including:

• Wes Edens: Owner, Milwaukee Bucks 
• Vivek Ranadivé: Majority Owner, Sacramento Kings; Founder, TIBCO Software
• Michael Rubin: Founder/Executive Chairman, Fanatics; Co-Owner, Philadelphia 76ers
• Steve Pagliuca: Managing Director, Bain Capital and Co-Owner, Boston Celtics
• Jonathan Kraft: President, The Kraft Group and the New England Patriots
• Michael Lewis: Best-selling author of Moneyball and The Blind Side
• Nate Silver: Statistician, author and founder of FiveThirtyEight
• Shane Battier: Former NBA player, college basketball analyst
• Sue Bird: Point Guard, Seattle Storm
• Kirk Goldsberry: Writer for Grantland, Visiting Scholar at Harvard University
• Masai Ujiri: President and GM, Toronto Raptors
• Jackie MacMullan: Columnist, ESPN
• Glenn Fleisig: Research Director, American Sports Medicine Institute
• Mike D'Antoni: Former NBA Head Coach
• Rod Thorn: President of Basketball Operations, NBA
• Andrea Kremer: Chief Correspondent, Player Health and Safety, NFL Network
• Dave Cameron: Managing Editor, Fangraphs
• Sean Payton: Head Coach, New Orleans Saints
• Jonah Keri: Staff Writer, Grantland and FiveThirtyEight
• Wycliffe Grousbeck: Managing Partner, Governor and CEO, Boston Celtics
• Peter King: Editor-in-Chief, The MMQB
• Edward Tufte: Professor Emeritus, Yale University

The full list of speakers is available at: http://www.sloansportsconference.com/?page_id=449.

The 2015 conference will also feature many high-profile and insightful panels, including the following: Innovators and Adopters will include a roundtable discussion between Michael Lewis, Jeff Van Gundy, and Shane Battier. Amateurs or Industry will examine NCAA reform, the redefinition of "student-athlete", and conference consolidation, with sports law experts and new NCAA EVP for Regulatory Affairs Oliver Luck. Sharing, Liking, Streaming will go in depth into the changing scenery of sports media, discussing media delivery and shifting media strategy as new technologies evolve.

Returning this year is the Research Paper Competition, the world's largest forum for groundbreaking research in sports. Past contributions have ranged from evaluating players and game strategies to examining the success factors for sports businesses. This year, with nearly 200 submissions across four tracks (baseball, basketball, other sports, and the business of sports), the grand prize winner will take home $20,000.

Conference sponsors for this year include ESPN, Zebra Technologies, Ticketmaster, SAP, KORE Software, Wasserman Media Group, Booz Allen Hamilton, Ropes & Gray, Catapult, MLBAM, Tableau Software, DraftKings, CDW, Ryerson University, FanDuel, StubHub, Thuzio, Polar, and SportIQ.

The goal of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is to provide a forum for industry professionals, executives, leading researchers, and students to discuss the increasing role of analytics in the global sports industry. MIT Sloan is dedicated to fostering growth and innovation in this arena, and hopes to enrich opportunities for learning about the use of analytics in sports, sports business, and sports technology via the 2015 conference.

To learn more, please visit: http://www.sloansportsconference.com.

For further information, contact :

Paul Denning    
Director of Media Relations  
(617) 253-0576 office
denning@mit.edu

Patricia Favreau  
Associate Director of Media 
(617) 253-3492      
pfavreau@mit.edu 

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SOURCE MIT Sloan School of Management