Some Cool Spatial Sports Links

Spatial Analysis of Tennis by Damien Demaj

Sweet link to mapping basketball by Kirk Goldsberry.

Michael Schuckers work on rating goalies in Hockey which builds upon his shot probability maps.

Tonnes of stuff out there on heat maps in soccer (e.g., here).

The ESPN website actually contains a lot of spatial data (e.g., Basketball shot charts).

Fox Sports has nice hit chart data for baseball players (e.g., Jose Bautista).

Baseball strikezone heat maps also count, even though the spatial domain is not geographical per se (e.g., from fangraphs).

Spatial analysis on the role of travel distances on team success in March Madness.

Know of any other great websites doing spatial sports analytics, or other interesting pieces of spatial sports data? Post a comment and I'll add them to the list.

Introduction: Why "Spatial" Sports Analytics?

I'm a PhD Candidate in Geography at the University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. My dissertation involves the development of quantitative methods for studying things that move. Most of my work has centered on spatial ecology and wildlife movement, but the tools and methods I employ can also be applied to other application areas, for example athlete movement. Further, I have a fundamental interest in spatial analysis and GIS, and I hope to apply the skills that I have in these areas to investigate those sports analytics problems that involve a spatial perspective.

I've created this blog to share my musings on the why spatial concepts are really important drivers in some of the different patterns we see in a variety of sports; but more importantly to foster the correct usage and understanding of spatial analysis techniques in sports analytics. In doing so, I hope to provide ideas, examples, and links involving tools, methods, datasets, and most importantly interesting questions involving the study of spatial concepts in sports analytics research.

Hope you enjoy!

Jed A. Long