SSAC

Jason Robins - Co-Founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board, DraftKings Wyc Grousbeck - Lead Owner, Boston Celtics Jessica Gelman (moderator) - CEO, Kraft Analytics Group (KAGR)   Jason Robins and Wyc Grousbeck are two of the most prominent builders of sports businesses today who see opportunities before others. As the Co-Founder and CEO of DraftKings, Jason helped revolutionize the ever-growing US sports betting landscape with the advent of daily fantasy games and mobile wagering. As Lead Owner of the Boston Celtics and a venture capitalist, Wyc Grousbeck helped revitalize one of the NBA's most iconic brands and was an early pioneer investing around sports including fast-growing sports entities such as SeatGeek, Zwift, and Formula E. Join Jason and Wyc as they sit down with Jessica Gelman to discuss their sports career paths and the strategies they've deployed to navigate obstacles along the way.

Marie Donoghue - Vice President, Global Sports Video, Amazon Jessica Gelman - CEO, Kraft Analytics Group (KAGR) Renie Anderson - Chief Revenue Officer and Executive Vice President, NFL Partnerships, NFL Valerie Camillo - President & CEO, Spectacor Sports & Entertainment Shelley Pisarra (moderator) - Executive Vice President of Global Insights and Strategy, Wasserman   The Year of the Fan is upon us as leagues, teams, and partners are more connected and more knowledgeable about their consumers than ever before. Sports continues to dominate our mindshare whether that be watching, reading, listening, or playing alongside. Historically, the Holy Grail of Fan Insights was long around who was attending games. With more ways to consume sports, innovation in understanding and serving the fan is rapidly accelerating. Organizations have invested in improving all aspects of the game-day experience and growing connectivity. Simultaneously, as digital marketing, cashless payments, and OTT content provides a deeper perspective about who, how, when, and why fans are engaging, innovation around a 360 degree view of the fan has become the new focus. Listen in as industry leaders who are redefining fan experiences through entertainment/content, experiences, data, and fan connectivity. With new patterns and data on consumer behavior, long-held industry myths have been busted and is driving a more personalized and "always on" fan experience. 

Tim Clark - Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer, NASCAR Kathryn Kai-ling Frederick - Chief Marketing Officer, LA Rams Kaitee Daley - Vice President of Social Media, ESPN Karlis Kezbers (moderator) - Vice President of Global Client Analytics, Ticketmaster   More than 50% of fans currently use social media platforms while watching live sports, and that number is only expected to grow. The meteoric rise of short-form video across all social media platforms has shifted viewer attention spans and content preferences. Fans are opting for bite-sized clips over an entire real-time game, or behind-the-scenes clips over live content. In fact, in the next 5 years, the value of short-form video clips in sports is expected to rise faster than live media rights. Join our panelists for a discussion on the evolution of social media and its impact on sports consumption and fanhood. Learn how sports teams are currently using social media to engage their audiences, and their plans to expand beyond those who watch cable broadcasts.

Corbin Petro - CEO and Co-Founder, Eleanor Health Corey Thomas - Chair and CEO, Rapid7 Seth Moulton - U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 6th Congressional District Sanjeev Verma - Founder and Chairman, PreVeil Andrea Jones-Rooy (moderator) - Social Scientist, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Visiting Associate Professor, NYU Center for Data Science   Data is used across industries in innovative ways, raising questions on its use, ownership, and appropriate guardrails. This panel brings together industry experts all focused on using data for the greater good – improved health, safety, security – to share learnings on managing unintended consequences and protect from bad actors. In fact, the sports industry, athletes, leagues, and teams are just learning how to grapple with these issues, as the rise of video footage, AI, and wearable sensors have made it feasible to analyze performance trends in unparalleled detail. Join us as we look to the expertise of panelists across healthcare, government, and cybersecurity industries to better understand what sports can learn from other industries to ensure data is used in the right way by the right people.

Patrick Lucey - Chief Scientist, Stats Perform Daryl Morey - President of Basketball Operations, Philadelphia 76ers Sherry Marcus - Director, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Amazon Web Services (AWS) S. Matthew Liao - Arthur Zitrin Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Center for Bioethics, New York University Ethan Strauss (moderator) - Proprietor of the House of Strauss Substack The recent launches of ChatGPT and Dall-E have put a spotlight on artificial intelligence (AI), making it arguably the most discussed topic in the news right now. While many industries have just started to get their first exposure to the possibilities of AI, it has already started to make an impact in the sports industry. Some reports estimate that the AI in Sports market will reach tens of billions of dollars in the next 10 years. From helping analyze game footage and player data in the NBA and NFL, to identifying trends and patterns that predict future performance in F1, teams and organizations are increasingly relying on AI to help gain an edge. Led by Ethan Strauss and joined by Daryl Morey (76ers), Patrick Lucey (Stats Perform), Sherry Marcus (AWS), and S. Matthew Liao (NYU), this panel will discuss the current state of this cutting edge technology and what the future of AI has in store for the sports industry.

Michael Markovich - Chief Commercial Officer, Sony's Sports Businesses & Managing Director, Pulselive Russell Wolff - Executive Vice President and GM, ESPN+, ESPN Tim Clark - Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer, NASCAR Alison Overholt (moderator) - Professor, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism & Founder, Good People LLC   This is arguably the most exciting, yet uncertain time in sports media history. Large tech companies are winning sports media rights contracts, many consumers stream games rather than watch on cable, organizations are developing their own direct to consumer networks, social media continues to be the go to medium for younger generations to consume sports, and the rise of esports continually represents a challenge to traditional sports. With representation from major players in the space, this panel will include a range of perspectives across media, technology, and league offices. Topics will include the current state of sports media, the path forward for traditional broadcasters, streaming and digital media, technological innovations to the consumption experience, and league-wide strategies on what it will take to win the fight for viewership.

Jessica Gelman - CEO, Kraft Analytics Group (KAGR) Daryl Morey - President of Basketball Operations, Philadelphia 76ers Nate Silver - Statistician, Author, and Founder of FiveThirtyEight Bill James - Baseball Writer, Historian, and Statistician Michele Steele (moderator) - Reporter, ESPN Imagine you are granted unlimited wishes allowing you to change the landscape of sports as we know it. You can access any data in the world; you can change any rules; you could invent totally new sports; you can introduce any type of technology. What would you do? In the final session of our 2023 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, we bring together the leaders in sports and business analytics to discuss the art of the possible for future changes in the sports industry.

Keira D'Amato - Professional Runner, InsideTracker Endurance Team Ian MacGregor - Co-Founder & CEO, Skratch Labs Dr. Allen Lim - Co-Founder, Skratch Labs Jonathan Levitt (moderator) - Host, For The Long Run Podcast   In the constant search for an edge, athletes, trainers and coaches are increasingly focusing on better data collection and advanced modeling to refine training plans, optimize recovery and perfect race strategy. Endurance athletes across marathons, triathlons, and cycling events push themselves to the limit each and every day to achieve victory. Over the last 20 years, innovative training, nutrition and recovery plans as well as equipment advances have allowed athletes to achieve unbelievable feats. Now, enabled by new biometric and performance tracking devices, data represents the next source for pushing the limits of human achievement. This panel will focus on how data is being leveraged to take human performance to the next level in endurance sports. By seizing the data, who knows what humans will be able to accomplish next?

Luke Bornn - Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, Zelus Analytics Lucy Rushton - General Manager and Head of Technical Recruitment and Analysis, D.C. United Jaeson Rosenfeld - Analytics Advisor, FIFA Raul Pelaez - Co-founder and CEO, ailite Ted Knutson (moderator) - CEO and Co-Founder, StatsBomb   It was a long journey for the soccer analytics community to bring foundational metrics like expected goals to mainstream consciousness and understanding. Soccer fans around the world now expect to see analytical tools such as expected goals on match broadcasts, video games, and online discussions. Soccer analytics has evolved beyond shot- and event-based data as the game's brightest minds seek to quantify value everywhere on the field at all times. Significantly, improved understanding of player aging curves and valuation models has radically shifted recruitment strategies and talent flows, with clubs across Europe and the Americas buying younger and younger. In this new phase, women’s soccer has seen unprecedented levels of investment in television deals, talent, and analytics departments. This panel collects soccer's key thought leaders working in a wide variety of spaces to push the beautiful game's analytics to new frontiers.

Kat Frederick - CMO, Los Angeles Rams Broderick Hicks - VP, Brands, Wasserman Nicole Jeter West - CEO, Underdog Venture Team Allison Feaster - VP of Player Development & Organizational Growth, Boston Celtics Candace Sautman (moderator) - Senior Director of Strategy, Laundry Service   Real-world issues in sports and business have always been intertwined. In sports, these challenges are very visible, and even more so since Colin Kaepernick’s protests during the National Anthem in 2016. Schools, workplaces, and communities have been grappling with issues around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for years, and while not as publicly visible, the challenges are just as big. What is next in sports, business and culture to evolve a more equitable and accurate depiction of gender, race, and sexuality across sports and business? Progress must be made. On Wall Street, public boards must have female representation. In the NFL, the Rooney Rule hasn’t changed the numbers on Black head coaches. How do we move from the initiatives of today - hosting events, educating, and training on DE&I to truly living DEI - having truly diverse, inclusive, representative organizations and teams on and off the field? It is time to move the chains on DE&I initiatives in sports and this panel will highlight leaders who are the change.