2021

StatsBomb Conference 2021: Speakers, Panels, Research Paper Winners, and more...

By Ted Knutson | September 2, 2021
2021

StatsBomb Conference 2021: Speakers, Panels, Research Paper Winners, and more...

We're into September, which means football is once again in full swing. But that also means the StatsBomb Conference is only about five weeks away, and it is going to be fantastic. Today I am going to fill in the details around the event, and also explain just a few reasons why many people think this is the best football analytics conference of the year.

The event details 

  • Date - Friday 8th October 2021
  • Location - Stamford Bridge, London
  • Time - 9.00 a.m to 6.00 p.m.

This event will be in person at Stamford Bridge on the 8th of October. As we did in 2019, much of the conference will either be broadcast publicly, or the talks will be posted on YouTube in the weeks after the event. However, not all talks will be available either live or online, as some of our speakers only have permission to give their talks to the people present in the room at the time.

Basically, if you want to make sure you see all the talks, you’ll need to show up. And we know from last time that the food should be great, so you’ve got that going for you too.

What to expect from the StatsBomb Conference 2021? 

  • Your host - Ted Knutson
  • Key talks from StatsBomb experts - Nicole Kozlova, Ukrainian National Team player and StatsBomb Data Science Intern + one talk from our Data Science Team
  • Industry speakers (see list below) 
  • Networking ops - around 600 attendees from across the football ecosystem 
  • Research paper competition

A stellar line-up of industry speakers 

  • Dr Ian Graham - Head of Research (Liverpool FC)
  • Daryl Morey - President of Basketball Ops - (Philadelphia 76ers)
  • Harry Moyal - Deputy General Manager (Olympique Lyonnais) 
  • Mladen Sormaz - Head of Football Analytics (Leicester City)

I continue to be amazed at the quality of people who agree to speak at our event. Ian, Harry, and Mladen are all giving their own talks, while Daryl will be in more of a fireside chat format. I’ll ask him about his beginnings in basketball analytics, his interest in uh… “soccer” and his famed 'launch and squish' preferred style of play.

Not yet on the speaker list is REDACTED, Head of REDACTED at a Champions League club, who will be announced very soon.

Directors of Football Panel

  • Victor Orta - Director of Football (Leeds United FC)
  • James Cryne - Director and Co-Owner (Barnsley FC)
  • Will Kuntz - SVP of Soccer Operations & Assistant GM (LAFC)

We’re also excited to have three key executives from some of the most forward-thinking clubs in world football, who will discuss their experiences in driving an analytics-based culture within their organisations and how the industry is changing.

Research Paper Competition ​​​​

Following an influx of highly impressive submissions for the research paper competition, we are pleased to announce the following speakers and the title of the papers that they'll be presenting on the Research Stage:

  • Devin Pleuler - Tempo: another expectation model?
  • Maaike Van Roy, et al - Optimally disrupting opponent build-ups
  • Javier M. Buldú - The quest for the right pass: quantifying player’s decision making
  • Hadi Sotudeh - Introduction of potential counter-attack
  • Soumyajit Bose and Manas Saraswat - Turning with the ball and decision-making under pressure
  • Samer Fatayri, Kirill Serykh, Egor Gumin - How to save efficiently: what drives the goalkeepers’ decisions?
  • Max Odenheimer - Splitting GSAA: finding the best shot-stopper for your team
  • Juan Camilo Campos - Determining the phases of the play using graph convolutional networks

COVID Info

What measures are we putting in place? The event will feel safe with reduced touchpoints and lots of ventilation. We are really excited that this is an in-person event and a chance to actually see people again.

  • All attendees must be double-jabbed or provide proof of a negative test taken at most 48 hours before the event
  • We will be providing StatsBomb branded masks upon entry - though the use of these inside the venue is up to the individual's discretion
  • Detailed information around our Covid policy will be sent to attendees prior to the event*

Basically, the conference will be brilliant and - unlike most conferences in the football analytics space - ours is open to the public. We hope to see you there!

Tickets available here: The StatsBomb Conference Tickets, Fri 8 Oct 2021 at 09:00 | Eventbrite


 

*Stamford Bridge has their own Covid policy which we will be adhering to - the key points have been summarised above. If you'd like to read the full set of guidelines that we'll be following before, during, and after the event, you can read them here: Stamford Bridge Covid Policy