Media Release
Friday 9 December, 2016
A new La Trobe University initiative will help sports teams stay ahead of the game by training Australia’s first group of specialist sports analysts.
The University has worked with leading industry partners including Carlton F.C, Melbourne City F.C, Catapult and Optus to develop Australia’s first Master degree in Sports Analytics.
Data analysis has become a top priority for organisations in the $500 billion global sports industry with elite teams using highly sophisticated monitoring technology and advanced statistics to gain a competitive advantage.
La Trobe has created the Masters of Sports Analytics to meet the emerging demand from the top sports codes, here and overseas, to use a myriad of data to help improve performance, strategy and player drafting.
La Trobe University Pro-Vice Chancellor of Research Development, Professor Russell Hoye, said the new course, open for enrolment in 2017, will be taught by industry leaders and give students the skills required to keep their players at peak performance.
“More precise health and performance monitoring, video technology, high speed cameras, GPS tracking and more sophisticated sports statistics are generating millions of data points in every week of sports competition,” he said.
“The challenge is that we don’t have enough people to make sense of and take advantage of this mass of information.
“Used properly, sport analytics can boost performance, help predict and hopefully prevent injury, speed up rehabilitation, as well as improve in-game strategy and talent recruitment.
“This course is preparing students to be at the frontier of data handling and problem solving in a field that is expanding exponentially,” he said.
Graduates will be prepared for careers in elite sport organisations as well as other data intensive roles with the media, marketing agencies, sports wagering providers, health providers and sponsors.
Students will also learn the skills required to compete for jobs in organisations overseas such as the NBA, NFL or MLB who are currently using data to revolutionise team and player performance.
The course is being offered at La Trobe’s Collins St Campus.
For more information, head to our website at www.latrobe.edu.au/sportsanalytics.
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