Game of Edges: The Analytics Revolution and the Future of Professional Sports

The future of professional sports - handling controversial topics (e.g., gambling, politics, but mostly the effect of data analysis on every aspect of pro sports) in a straightforward, no polemics, clear, wry style. The history of the Moneyball approach to player selection, strategy, and marketing and how it’s changed MLB, the NBA, and the Premier League (and to a much lesser extent, NFL and NHL. Great intro to these topics for someone studying sports business (or for someone wishes they ran their favorite team) - because of the comprehensive compilation of materiel in easy to digest form - but, despite the potentially divisive issues, the tone is neither naive nor combative. Must-read for someone who takes sports seriously.

This book was a blast: Well-written and informative with a clever conceit: What if we applied Moneyball principles on the field to the business putting people on the field. I especially appreciated the difficult dilemma of optimizing for wins vs creating a fun night at the park as well as the reason you didn't want to treat fans like customers (because customers don't come back after a poor experience, but fans do). These discussions made me think of how half the problems companies have is with optimizing offices, running lean and being just on time: they've cut costs to so deeply to maximize profit, they made their companies as unattractive to work at, unable to stay the course, and doomed by any schock to the system. Hopefully someone can figure out how to measure fun and put it in a spreadsheet. (And all hail the pitch clock!)Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the early look.

Really enjoyed the audio narration.

Although the book is interesting and chock full of unique stories, I lost interest in it about halfway through when it concentrated on soccer and the WNBA for a couple chapters. I wanted more information about the NFL but the sports it concentrates on are baseball and basketball. That said, it’s an informative read and I enjoyed it for the most part although I found myself skimming through some of the material.

Book dented on the bottom of the hardback. Not happy with that, however thankfully all pages intact. Looking forward to properly reviewing as have heard great things about the book itself.