Maastricht School of Management

Maastricht School of Management (MSM) has introduced an exciting new course in Business Data Analytics, with a focus on the Sports Industry. The course will take place between 2 and 9 July as part of MSM’s path-breaking Executive MBA in Sports Management.

(Main photo: MSM Dean Professor Wim Naudé with Mr. Davy Cielen and Dr Stuart Dixon, MBA Coordinator at MSM)

Dr. Vincent Feltkamp and Mr. Davy Cielen will teach the core of the course. Dr Feltkamp is Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems and holds a M.Sc. in Mathematics from the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and a PhD in Game Theory from Tilburg University. Mr.d Cielen is Senior Lecturer in Business Data Analytics at MSM and one of the founders and managing partners of companies such as Optimately and Maiton, where he focuses on developing data science projects and solutions in various sectors.

In recent years advances in computing and communication technologies have lead to a data explosion. As Marr (2016:2) pointed out: “We have created more data in the past two years than in the entire previous history of mankind”. This “big data” revolution has important implications for organizations – and for entrepreneurs. It allows them to be more efficient, to save costs, to implement novel business models, to create new markets and to understand customers better. Managers, entrepreneurs and policy-makers appreciate being able to make decisions based on sound information. In this regard, data-driven decision management (DDDM) has become a crucial objective in most leading organzsations.

This course provides an introduction and overview of the management, mining, analysis and visualization of big data DDDM. Participants will get an introduction to the use of Tableau for data visualisation.

The focus of this course is on the use of big data in sports. Increasingly, applied data analysis is important for sports management.

“All Premier League clubs have data analysts, as do many in the lower divisions, with stats crunched on everything from the distance covered by a player in a game to the number of crosses played with either foot.” – Extract form BBC article Manchester’s City’s data driven vision for players and fans by Bill Wilson.

This quote reflects the growing use of data analytics at major football teams in the UK. They do this to enhance the performance of an individual player to the best current composition of the current team. Using data analytics in sports is not limited to the UK, for instance football teams such as New York City FC (USA), Melbourne City FC (Australia) and the Yokahoma Marinos (Japan) use data analytics as well for enhancing the sport performance of the team as increasing the fan base and hence the business performance of the team.

Applied Data analytics is also not limited to football, but also increasingly used in other sports such as F1 racing, baseball, athletics, cycling, and even useful for improving personal fitness.

As part of this sport focus, participants in the course will be able to undertake a practical field trip to Infostrada/Gracenote Inc near Utrecht, where they will learn how Gracenote supports the sport industry world wide through data analytics, and experience how this is done in the case of the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam.

Together with various other partners, MSM is currently planning various initiatives around Business Data Analytics, including for supporting decision-making in healthcare management and international business. More information will follow.

You can now also register to join the Executive MBA event on 24 June 2016. During this event you will receive all the latest information about the MSM Executive MBA and receive a master class by Mr. Leo Smit – industrial innovation expert with over 25 years of experience in a variety of innovation roles at DSM – technical R&D, product and market development, new business venture creation and communications.

Click here for more information about this event and to register.

'Big' Data Analytics for sports: new MSM course