SSAC

Moderator: Ben Alamar Panelists: Dean Oliver, Brittni Donaldson, Mike Zarren In the dynamic landscape of modern basketball, analytics has emerged as a cornerstone, fundamentally altering the way the game is played, analyzed, and strategized. This panel will delve into the emergence of basketball analytics from its initiation to its current essential role in today's basketball paradigm. The discussion seamlessly intertwines the historical origins with the contemporary significance of basketball analytics, showcasing its transformative journey within the sport, from its humble origins to its current status as a game-changer in the NBA and professional basketball. Navigating pivotal milestones, influential figures, and driving forces, the panel examines the profound impact analytics has on various facets of the sport, from front office strategies, coaching methodologies, player development, and beyond. This session promises to captivate enthusiasts, industry professionals, and basketball aficionados alike, offering valuable insights into the significance of analytics in shaping the past, present, and future of basketball strategy and performance. #EvolutionOfBasketball

Moderator: Warren Zola Panelists: Martin Jarmond, Val Ackerman, Brian Higgins The world of college athletics has seen seismic shifts in recent weeks and years. The introduction of NIL compensation has altered the recruiting landscape across sports, media rights are evolving the exposure of college sports, and conference realignment is changing the college sports experience for student-athletes, universities, and their fans. This panel will delve into the impact of these changes to date and what they could mean for the future of college athletics. Hear from Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman, UCLA Athletic Director Martin Jarmond, COO of NIL consulting firm Altius Tommy Gray, and NCAA SVP of Business Performance Brian Higgins as they discuss the latest developments across college sports and where we go from here. #NewGeneration

Moderator: Arda Ocal  Panelists: Meghan Chayka, Tyler Dellow, P.K. Subban, Jacqueline Davidson There's a changing of the guard underway in the NHL, with legendary superstars entering the twilight of their careers and a new crop of generational talents on the way up. As this new era of the NHL gets underway, how are front office executives thinking about roster construction? What's the balance between analytics and eye test? How do you construct a roster that can handle the grind of the regular season while making sure you have a team that's built to succeed in the playoffs? From the player’s perspective, how is this next generation of NHL athletes thinking about analytics to improve their game, scout opposing teams and maximize their recovery? Come find out all this and more from 13 year NHL veteran PK Subban, NHL front office executives Brett Peterson and Tyler Delllow and Stathletes Co-Founder and CEO Meghan Chayka. #StatsToStanleyCups

Moderator: Deepak Malhotra Panelists: Daryl Morey, Monte McNair, Nico Harrison Presidents and GMs of professional sports teams are responsible for a lot of decisions, but nothing gets more attention, discussion, debate, and criticism from fans and the media than the trades they make (or fail to make) as they try to build a title contender. The fact is, even the most ardent fan or sophisticated analyst has no visibility on what really happens in these deals – or why certain decisions were made. How do these parties actually interact and battle it out behind closed doors? What are the pressures and constraints that dealmakers face that are not visible to those on the outside? Why is there often a discrepancy between what fans want, analysts advise, and teams actually do? This panel will bring together NBA executives Nico Harrison, Dennis Lindsey, Monte McNair, and Daryl Morey to discuss the inner workings of building a championship-level team from the perspective of an executive and give you a lens on what actually happens behind the scenes. #Negotiations

Moderator: Alison Overholt Panelists: Kat Frederick, Tim Clark, Carolyn Tisch There are more ways than ever for fans and organizations to engage and interact, both digitally and in-person. By extending the game day experience and connecting more broadly with fully virtual viewing opportunities, sports organizations have an abundance of options to reach more fans in new and different ways. However, maximizing fan attention and engagement remains a challenge in a world where so many alternatives exist. This panel will delve into the ways that organizations foster authentic and long lasting fan engagement and how they differentiate in their local market while globalizing their brand. Panelists will also discuss the increasing role of technology and who owns the fan data along with the growing need for analytics to connect sports and fans. #fanalytics

Moderator: Contessa Brewer Panelists: Gerry Cardinale, Rich Kleiman, Steve Pagliuca In recent years, the sports world has seen massive changes in ownership structures, portfolio approaches across leagues and geographies, control vs. minority, and the role of content in driving value. Hear from change agents Gerry Cardinale, Steve Pagliuca, and Rich Kleiman on their strategies, views, and lessons they've learned in the industry. This panel will highlight the changing nature of sports ownership and how each panelist has managed their investments. The panelists will discuss the ways in which the ownership of assets across different sports can generate competitive advantages. They will also dive into how franchises think about engaging fan bases both domestically and internationally, including the role of media networks and partnerships, as well as future trends in the global sports industry as they relate to ownership and sports content #SportsOwnership

Bill James - Former Senior Baseball Operations Advisor Boston Red Sox Michael Lewis - Author & Journalist Shane Battier - Former Vice President, Analytics and Basketball Development, Miami Heat; 2012 & 2013 NBA Champion, Miami Heat Daryl Morey - President of Basketball Operations, Philadelphia 76ers Jackie MacMullan (moderator) - Retired Senior Writer   When Moneyball was published in 2003, no one could have predicted its monumental impact across business, sports, culture, and beyond. Now, twenty years later, the book, and later the blockbuster movie, sparked a renaissance that has totally changed how organizations think about and use data. Jackie MacMullen will lead a discussion with Michael Lewis, Bill James, and Shane Battier as the group reflects on the impact and legacy of Moneyball - and analytics driven thinking - over the last two decades.

Michael Rubin - CEO, Fanatics DeMaurice Smith - Executive Director - National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) Tamika Tremaglio - Executive Director, National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) Jessica Gelman (moderator) - CEO, Kraft Analytics Group (KAGR)   Over the past 5 years, we’ve seen a massive shift in how players are directly engaging with fans, investing into business, and using their platform to affect societal change.  As players step into their collective power, the NBAPA, NFLPA, and partners like Fanatics are redefining the role and impact of player influence within and across the sports industry. Featuring DeMaurice Smith (NFLPA Executive Director), Tamika Tremaglio (NBPA, Executive Director), and Michael Rubin (CEO of Fanatics), Jessica Gelman will guide a discussion on how these industry innovators are adjusting their business models, creating new business lines, driving the future of fan interactivity and have altered the player power landscape to innovate sports.

Stef Strack - Founder & CEO, Voice in Sport, and Voice in Sport Foundation Billy Bean - SVP | Diversity, Equity & Inclusion & Special Assistant to the Commissioner, Major League Baseball (MLB) Sola Winley - EVP Office of the Commissioner and Chief DEI Officer, Major League Soccer (MLS) Jonathan Beane - Senior Vice President, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, NFL Katie Burke (moderator) - Chief People Officer, HubSpot   Sports organizations are prioritizing and developing programs to broaden DEI. However, despite increased discussion, media attention, and data supporting diversity, women, people of color, non-binary, and LGBTQ leaders continue to be underrepresented in sports from entry-level to most glaringly in the executive branch. Importantly, leagues are investing heavily in equaling the playing field from employees to vendors to partners with a diversity priority. Over the past few years, major sports leagues have created new policies, hired DEI leaders, and shared their representations from business to team to front office. This panel brings together the league leaders who are driving change at the macro and team-level to increase representation. Moderated by Katie Burke, regarded as a leading voice of culture at Hubspot, learn what is working, what the data says, and how much more we need to do to accelerate representation of diversity, equity, and inclusion in sports.

Jessica Berman - Commissioner, National Women’s Soccer League Johanna Faries - Senior Vice President/General Manager of Call of Duty, Activision Blizzard Jackie MacMullan (moderator) - Retired Senior Writer   Sports has long been a microcosm for society at large and given the public visibility athletes, teams, and leagues expected to lead on all aspects of culture. From players to fans to ownership expectations, it is more critical than ever that organizations listen, respond, and set a path towards evolution. Led by Jackie MacMullan, listen in as Jessica Berman (NWSL Commissioner) and Johanna Faries (Senior Vice President/General Manager of Call of Duty, Activision Blizzard) discuss the process of defining a path forward as organizations invest heavily in cultures to set new precedents, ensure employee, fan, and player satisfaction and improve the organization’s outcomes. With many competing stakeholders, this panel will feature perspectives from all angles of cultural change within and around the sports industry.

Sue Bird - WNBA Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist, Co-Founder of A Touch More and Togethxr Brian Westbrook - Managing Director of Athlete Entrepreneur Network, underdog venture team Lindsay Kagawa Colas - Executive Vice President, Talent + The Collective, Wasserman Michele Steele (moderator) - Reporter, ESPN   Star athletes develop strong name recognition for their feats on the field, but their professional athletic careers represent just a fraction of their lives. After retirement (or sometimes even before), athletes embark on numerous different pathways, often using their platform and lessons learned in their playing careers to make an impact on the broader world. This panel convenes star athletes and one of the most prominent agents in sports for a discussion centered on entrepreneurship and investment as a means to drive positive change.

Sue Bird - WNBA Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist, Co-Founder of A Touch More and Togethxr Brad Stevens - President of Basketball Operations, Boston Celtics Steve Magness - Performance Coach, Author Michael Lewis (moderator) - Author & Journalist   Pressure in sports comes in many forms and some people "have it." Listen in as legendary clutch performer Sue Bird shares how she handles the highest-pressure moments on the court and in boardrooms, how former coach and now team architect Brad Stevens defines the value of performance under pressure for his players, and how performance coach Steve Magness studies the science of these skills to drive performance improvement. Can the "clutch ability" be measured? How do we define clutch? End of shot clock, end of game, importance of the game? How do athletes prepare to perform under pressure mentally and physically? Join this myth-busting discussion led by Michael Lewis as leaders in this area attempt to answer what truly makes the best athletes perform under pressure.

Olav Aleksander Bu - Co-Founder, Head of Performance for Norway Triathlon, Santara Technology Chris Cassidy - Retired NASA Astronaut & NAVY Seal, President and CEO, National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation Roberta Groner - Professional Runner, USATF and RRCA Coach Steve Magness (moderator) - Performance Coach, Author   What do space flight and endurance sports have in common? Both demand the highest level of physical and mental performance, requiring astronauts and athletes alike to push their limits and strive for peak performance. Achieving this goal requires a comprehensive approach that integrates training, recovery, nutrition, and perhaps most important of all mental toughness. This panel will explore what peak human performance means and whether or not it is attainable, drawing on the insights and expertise of Olav Aleksander Bu (coach of Ironman World Champions Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden), Chris Cassidy (former Navy Seal and NASA Astronaut), and Roberta Gronder (American Distance Runner). Join Author and Performance Coach, Steve Magness as he leans on his experience to sift through the complexities and understand what matters most in the pursuit for peak human performance.

Tracey Kitt - Chief Technology Officer, Sony's Sports Businesses Megan Schroeder - Senior Director, Performance Science, Los Angeles Dodgers Michael D'Auria - Chief Commercial Officer, Second Spectrum Christina Chase (moderator) - Co-Founder, Managing Director MIT Sports Lab   The rapid rise of the use of analytics in sports has created demand for new and unique datasets that can help provide an edge over the competition. With the commercialization of motion capture technology, player and object movements can be analyzed and recreated down to the finest detail. For sports teams and leagues, this revolutionary new age of data capture has unlocked so many possibilities in terms of player evaluation, game strategy, and coaching. Furthermore, this advanced data capture has changed the way that games are officiated and administered, providing a path to fairer outcomes. Led by MIT's Christina Chase, hear from Tracey Kitt (Sony's Sports Businesses), Megan Schroeder (LA Dodgers) and Mike D'Auria (Second Spectrum) to learn more about how these exciting technologies are being applied in the sports industry.

Steve Palazzolo - Head of Product for the Football Division, Pro Football Focus (PFF) Thomas Dimitroff - CEO, SumerSports Kevin Demoff - Chief Operating Officer, Los Angeles Rams Jacqueline Davidson - Senior Director of Football Research, Tampa Bay Buccaneers Seth Walder (moderator) - Analytics Writer, ESPN   Football teams across the NFL are using analytics to build an edge over their competition, with improved roster construction being a chief use case. This has also created numerous opportunities for companies to build solutions that provide teams with the data and analytics they need to truly create an edge. Super Bowl winning executives and leaders from SumerSports and PFF convene on this panel to discuss how teams are currently using analytics to build that edge. Potential areas of discussion include how teams are building through the draft, how to prioritize cap allocation to the correct players and positions, approaches to free agency, and the handling of all the variables that come with trading. Panelists will touch on how teams are deploying analytics today, what has and hasn’t worked well in the league thus far, and where teams will be putting more of their analytics focus in the coming years.

Omar Chaudhuri - Chief Intelligence Officer, Twenty First Group Sarah Rudd - Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, src | ftbl Mladen Sormaz - Director of Football Analytics, 777 Partners Football Group John Muller (moderator) - Senior Writer, The Athletic   Soccer is both perhaps the most "unsolvable" major sport and earlier in the analytics adoption curve at the club level, making it an extremely exciting time for the global leaders pushing the boundaries of soccer analytics. The beautiful game's analytics research grows more fascinating by the year, with concepts like expected possession value models, pitch control, talent development, set piece optimization, and more gaining more traction. Meanwhile, clubs have become massive businesses, spending hundreds of millions of pounds on individual players while still unsure of how to integrate even basic analytical insights into their decision-making processes. This panel gathers the sport's brightest minds from the world's leading clubs, analytics consultancies, data providers, and researchers to truly dig into soccer's analytics frontier.

Mike Zarren - VP of Basketball Operations and Team Counsel, Boston Celtics Shane Battier - Former Vice President, Analytics and Basketball Development, Miami Heat; 2012 & 2013 NBA Champion, Miami Heat Katherine Evans - VP of Research and Information Systems, Monumental Sports & Entertainment Ben Cohen (moderator) - Author, Wall Street Journal   Analytics has transformed how players, coaches and front offices approach player development. The use of data analysis and advanced metrics has provided teams with valuable insights into player performance, allowing teams to tailor their training and development programs to better meet the needs of individual players. In addition, analytics has also led to a shift in how players approach their own development, as they now have access to detailed data about their own performance and can use this information to identify areas for improvement. Furthermore, the use of analytics has also impacted roster construction, as front offices and coaches now use data to make more informed decisions about everything from blockbuster trades to lineups. Join us as NBA Champion Shane Battier and front office executives Mike Zarren (Boston Celtics) and Katherine Evans (Washington Wizards) discuss the ways in which analytics has revolutionized the way that players, coaches and front offices approach player development.

Seth Walder - Analytics Writer, ESPN Brian Burke - Data Scientist, ESPN Allison Loucks (moderator) - Director, Business Development & Innovation, ESPN   ESPN Analytics will take a deep dive into what the team has done to tell differentiating stories with player tracking data, using the prism of Receiver Tracking Metrics, its newest offering using NFL Next Gen Stats data.

Amy Howe - CEO, FanDuel Tom Reeg - CEO, Caesars Jonathan Kraft - President, The Kraft Group Contessa Brewer (moderator) - Correspondent, CNBC   While sports betting has exploded in popularity recently in the US, only 1 in 5 Americans placed a bet on sports in 2022. As more states legalize sports betting (including Massachusetts in August 2022) and technological innovations drive adoption and accessibility, sports betting is poised for rapid growth. At this same time, sports teams and leagues are looking for new ways to attract new fans and broaden their demographics all while further engaging existing fans. This has come to a fever pitch as sports betting companies race to partner with teams and leagues in the pursuit of continued growth. This panel will explore the evolving landscape of sports betting, the ways in which innovation is driving growth in the industry, and how the landscape is different across leagues with the change agents of the gaming industry. Led by CNBC's Contessa Brewer, hear from Jonathan Kraft (The Kraft Group), Amy Howe (FanDuel) and Tom Reeg (Caesars) as the leaders driving fan engagement and innovation.

Molly Pendleton - Head of Touring, NHL and MLS, Eventellect Ryan Tanke - COO, Minnesota Timberwolves & Lynx Brian Lafemina - Chief Business Officer, LA28 Sezin Aksoy - Senior Vice President, Global Data Strategy & Analytics, AXS Shira Springer (moderator) - MIT Sloan Lecturer and Journalist, MIT Sloan   While companies are pouring billions of dollars into media and streaming rights to bring events to the masses, there is nothing that can replicate a live viewing experience: the sights, smells, sounds, and energy of a stadium is so unique. The stakes are only amplified when the events and experiences are big - fan expectations skyrocket in parallel with ticket prices. This panel convenes leading executives from ticketing companies, teams, and major events to discuss how to price the biggest tickets and deliver the boldest experiences all in the name providing fans an unforgettable live experience.