The 2024 edition of the StatsBomb Conference will be held at Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester on Friday 11th October 2024. The event is known for hosting expert names from the football analytics industry, with insights and experiences shared from some of the most forward-thinking sports organisations from around the world every year.
StatsBomb has always had a close connection to the wider analytics community and it’s important to us that this group is represented at this conference.
For that reason, we’re once again inviting you to send us your research proposals to present at the event. The best submissions will be offered the chance to write a paper using exclusive StatsBomb data and present it to an audience of industry professionals.
Proposal Theme
This year, we are looking for papers that follow the theme: Trade-offs
As with much of life, football involves many trade-offs. How much time should we spend coaching defence instead of attack in training this week? Should we spend our remaining budget on a young third-choice winger, or use it to offer a current player a new deal? We want this year’s research to focus on trade-offs. This will ensure the research is grounded in the difficult decisions coaches, analysts and executives make at clubs every day.
Examples might include:
- Player skill trade-offs: to what extent should a particular team accept deficiencies in one area to improve in another?
- Is a long throw specialist worth it versus a midfielder who is much better at dribbling?
- Tactical trade-offs: under what conditions is it better to attempt action A over action B?
- Is a long diagonal worth it versus a sideways pass to the other CB in space? Is this always the case?
We’ll be looking for proposals employing novel methods that are able to produce actionable analysis and compelling visualisations to communicate your findings. We are most interested in submissions that focus on deeper analysis of specific questions, but we are also open to and will consider any submissions.
Available Data
The research competition provides a unique opportunity to work with the most comprehensive and contextual event dataset in football. Participants will be given access to:
- StatsBomb's event and 360 data for 10 teams from one of the big 5 European leagues in the 2023/2024 season - the author(s) can choose which league they wish to focus on.
Submissions based on the publicly available StatsBomb Data are also welcome.
Proposal Details
The proposal will be judged on the following criteria:
- Originality: StatsBomb has the richest event data in the world, and 360 data is the only dataset of its kind. We’re looking for innovative approaches to analysing it
- Application: Can your work be used to help clubs make better decisions or be the basis for future research?
- Feasibility: Is your proposal a realistic one for the given timeframe?
Both foundational and applied research is welcome. We are dedicated to providing a platform for the most innovative research in football analytics, whether that means theoretical or practical work.
All proposals should include the following information:
- Paper Title
- Research Summary (maximum 500 words) - please cover the following questions:
- What football question are you looking to solve/investigate?
- What analysis and/or modelling technique(s) will you use?
- What data will you require?
- What potential problems do you anticipate?
- What organisation do you work for?
- What is your experience in football?
- What is your experience with data analysis/modelling?
- What experience do you have presenting?
- Are you able to attend the conference and present in person? Note that remote presentations are unlikely to be considered.
Entries are now closed. We'll be announcing successful candidates soon.
Only one proposal per person or group. Successful proposals will be required to present at the conference (circa 20 minute presentation) and will be given free admission (Maximum of 1 ticket per accepted proposal).
Proposal Review
The proposals will be judged by a team from the data science and analysis departments at StatsBomb.
Candidates will be informed at the latest by 12th July whether or not their proposal has been accepted. The deadline for submission of the final papers is 25th September ahead of the event on 11th October.
Selected speakers will receive a presentation template and assistance with preparing your presentation and research paper.
The accepted papers for our 2023 Conference can be read here.
If you have any questions, please email conference@statsbomb.com
