Analytics for Fantasy Basketball

• Activity Number: 327
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 6, 2013 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Sports
• Author(s): George Recck*+
• Companies: Babson College
• Keywords: Analytics ; Sports ; Basketball ; Fantasy

Abstract

Fantasy sports have grown to be a major social activity for sports fans eager to display their sports expertise in a competitive fashion against their peers. Most serious fans use meticulous planning and research in the hopes of out-smarting rival teams, creating the burgeoning market of readily available sports data and analysis tools that assist team owners in their roster decisions. Each year, most fantasy leagues start anew, giving participants the opportunity to tinker and plan in the quest for the perfect team. Selecting the right players on draft day is often the key to winning the league and having bragging rights over your friends for the next year. Given a constant rule set in the fantasy league as well as relatively timely updates on games, it would be possible to accurately measure the most effective drafting technique. However, there are now more sophisticated analytic tools that can be used across major sports to gain an advantage. This presentation will take one through a structured approach of applying analytics to identify the best statistical players to draft.