testpage

In 2014, sports analytics was a $125 million market. By 2021, its value is expected to balloon to $4.7 billion. But this market wasn’t always so lucrative or widely accepted. Back in 2002, the Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane earned a trip to the Major League Baseball playoffs despite having a payroll of just over $40 million — $80 million less than major market teams like the New York Yankees. The key to the A’s success? Not just their scouts’ intuition, but sabermetric principles and rigorous – though at the time, overlooked – statistical analysis.

Our world today runs on data. It’s changing the way we browse the Internet, run our businesses, treat medical patients and invest in technology. It’s the key to solving society’s biggest problems: famine, disease, poverty and ineffective education. And it is powering the global economy. But the data-driven economy is at a crossroads. With the eruption of information, we also open ourselves up to new risks and privacy concerns. As companies adopt more interconnected products and systems, the “Internet of Things” could usher in the next wave of challenges that range from data breaches to other potential privacy concerns if information is used improperly. As a society, we must decide whether to champion the explosion of connected information or allow its detractors to significantly constrain the innovation and growth ahead.

Today’s data-driven world creates exciting new opportunities, but also new challenges. Many of us see the promise of being able to make more intelligent decisions by fully understanding our customers and the needs of the marketplace. There are data scientists that can do incredible analysis to give us new insights into areas we didn’t think were possible.