Introduction to Sports Analytics
A free short course by Sportal Corporate — not a credit-bearing university award.
2h 22m of video11 videos17 written lessons
How data is actually used in professional sport — Moneyball, expected goals, tracking data — and the jobs it leads to. Free, with a certificate.
The course opens with what sports analytics is and the four distinct kinds of analytics job, then works through the Moneyball story and expected goals in depth. You build your first real analysis in a spreadsheet, move on to Python for football data, and finish with tracking data: player velocity, physical reports, and what clubs actually do with them.
It suits anyone weighing analytics as a career, coaches and managers who want to read a data report properly rather than nod at it, and students starting a sports science or management degree. Eleven video lessons are released one at a time, each with written notes, key terms and a practical exercise. Pass the ten-question quiz at 80% and your certificate is issued instantly, with an ID anyone can verify.
Start learning
Free, self-paced, no payment. Work through the lessons, pass the quiz, and get a certificate you can verify by QR code.
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What you will learn
28 lessons · 2h 22m- 1How this course works
- 2Video 1 — What is sports analytics?7m
- 3Notes — What is sports analytics?
- 4Video 2 — The four kinds of sports analytics job7m
- 5Notes — The four kinds of sports analytics job
- 6Video 3 — The story of Moneyball8m
- 7Notes — The story of Moneyball
- 8Video 4 — What is xG, and why it matters6m
- 9Notes — What is xG, and why it matters
- 10Video 5 — xG in more depth4m
- 11Notes — xG in more depth
- 12Video 6 — Your first analysis, in a spreadsheet16m
- 13Notes — Your first analysis, in a spreadsheet
- 14Video 7 — Building something useful in Excel20m
- 15Notes — Building something useful in Excel
- 16Video 8 — Learn Python using football data11m
- 17Notes — Learn Python using football data
- 18Video 9 — The complete football analytics in Python course4m
- 19Notes — The complete football analytics in Python course
- 20Video 10 — Introduction to football analysis with tracking data36m
- 21Notes — Introduction to football analysis with tracking data
- 22Video 11 — Player velocity and physical reports from tracking data23m
- 23Notes — Player velocity and physical reports from tracking data
- 24Key terms
- 25Key takeaways
- 26Exercise — Answer one real question with data
- 27Exercise — The analytics capstone
- 28Technical companion resources
Lessons unlock one at a time. Finish them all, score 80% on the quiz, and your certificate is issued automatically.