Dr Darin White: Exec Director, Center for Sports Analytics at Samford University

Sports Business Conversations

Lets start with a tortured analogy: using data and analytics is a little like going to the gym. You know it’s important and good for you, but MAN can it be hard to get started. No one knows this better than Dr Darin White, the Executive Director of the Center for Sports Analytics at Samford University in Birmingham AL. In his role, Dr White has created THE leading sports analytics program in the nation. But it’s not your typical ivory tower stuff. Far from it. Dr White and his students are working with sports teams and big sports marketing brands to make the best use of the oceans of data that surround them. The result has produced measurable results for everyone involved in these partnerships. In our conversation, we talk about the evolution of sports marketing from being a CEO’s plaything to an integral part of the marketing mix, how that evolution has placed new demands on teams and brands, and why the effective use of data and analytics is now critical to sports marketing partnerships. You can also calm down because he explains why Artificial Intelligence isn’t coming for your job. Yet.