Introduction on Sports Analytics

Thursday 18 Sept 2025, 09:00 → 13:00 Europe/Amsterdam

ENBIS-25 Course:  Introduction on Sports Analytics.

Part of the ENBIS-25 Piraeus conference.

Instructors

Ioannis Ntzoufras (Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB), Greece)

Dimitris Karlis (Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB), Greece)

Outline

• Why now? Examples and questions from different sports.
• Data, what we can learn and their quality. Ranking and Rating in sports
• Elo rating and its use
• Models for football. Use of tracking data.
• Models for Basketball.  Performance analysis
• Other sports. Sports Economics, Competitive Balance  

Short bios

Ioannis Ntzoufras is a  professor in the Department of Statistics at the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB), where his research focuses on the application of advanced statistical methodologies to real-world problems especially in statistical modeling, Bayesian analysis, and sports analytics. His research also addresses computational strategies and prior formulation for Objective Bayesian model comparison. He served as Head of the Department of Statistics at AUEB from 2020 to 2025. He was awarded the Lefkopoulion Award by the Greek Statistical Institute in 2000 and is the author of the book Bayesian Modeling Using WinBUGS (Wiley). In addition, he has authored a Greek-language textbook titled Introduction to Programming and Statistical Data Analysis with R, and he has served as the scientific editor for the Greek translations of two influential texts: Andy Field’s Discovering Statistics with R and Bernard Rosner’s Fundamentals of Biostatistics. Professor Ntzoufras has served as an associate editor for several journals, including the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series C (Applied Statistics), Statistics, and the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports. His scholarly output includes numerous publications in leading statistical journals, contributing to both theoretical innovation and applied research. His work spans diverse fields, such as psychometrics, forensic science, healthcare, and sports analytics. Beyond academia, he collaborates with professionals across industries, offering expertise in predictive modeling, decision-making, and data-driven strategy development. His contributions to sports analytics have led to the creation of models that enhance performance prediction and strategic planning in football, basketball, and volleyball. His research interests also include  Bayesian methodology, variable selection, applied statistics, biostatistics, psychometrics, and sports analytics.

Dimitris Karlis is  full professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business, where his research focuses on the development and application of advanced statistical methods for various problems and disciplines including discrete valued time series analysis,  model based clustering and sports analytics. He has served as director of the MSc in Statistics program at AUEB, (2019-today), Director of the Laboratory of Computational and Bayesian Statistics (2017 -today) and vice-President of the Research Committee of AUEB (2019 -today). He has worked  on the statistical analysis of sports data, especially in football (soccer), basketball, handball and other team sports. His work on modeling match outcomes,  player performance, and team strategies has had a substantial impact  on both academic research and practical applications in the sports industry. He has served as Editor-in-chief for Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports. He has been Associate Editor in other journals including  Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, Metron and Risks. He has been Guest Editor in a special issue on Mathematics in Sports in IMA Mathematics for Management Journal. He has authored more than 120 peer-reviewed journal articles in leading statistical journals and he  has collaborated with various sports organizations, data analysts, and bookmakers to apply statistical methods to real-world problems. His research has improved predictive modeling in sports, offering valuable insights into game outcomes, player behavior, and tactical decisions. Beyond his research,  he is actively involved in teaching and mentoring. He has authored 2 textbooks in Statistics.  In addition to his academic work, Dimitris Karlis is an active advisor for the use of data science and statistics in decision-making processes across different industries, including sports, finance, real-estate and healthcare. His academic and professional achievements have made him a key figure in the development of statistical techniques and their applications in both research and industry.

09:00 → 13:00 ENBIS Course: Introduction on Sports Analytics

Speakers: Dimitris Karlis, Ioannis Ntzoufras