The book takes the concept of computer-based simulations for predicting American football gameslike the Madden video games for exampleand attempts to devise a simpler method. With just a word processor, some spreadsheets, a fundamental understanding of percentages and probabilities, and a few hours of work, anyone can achieve results that are remarkably similar to those of the more sophisticated computer models. Chapters 1 to 5 outline the method and its rationale. Chapters 6 to 9 detail an actual simulated contest play-by-play. Chapters 10 to 11 and the appendices utilize the method described to determine which professional football team of the past fifty years was truly the best.

Match analysis is a performance-diagnostic procedure, which can be used to carry out systematic gaming analysis during competition and training. The analysis of team and racket sports, whether in competition, for opponent preparation (match plan), follow-up, or training is nowadays indispensable in many sports games at different levels. This analysis nevertheless presents many open questions and problem areas: Which data should be used? Who manages the data? Who provides whom with which information? How is this information presented, digested, and applied? The more complex and anonymous the data management is, the more commercial, expensive, and uncontrollable information management and provision becomes. Match Analysis: How to Use Data in Professional Sport is the first book to examine this topic through three types of data sets; video, event, and position data and show how to interpret this data and apply the findings for better team and individual sport performance. This innovative new volume is key reading for researchers, students, and practitioners alike in the fields of Coaching, Performance Analysis, Sport Management, and related specific sport disciplines.

GameAxis Unwired is a magazine dedicated to bring you the latest news, previews, reviews and events around the world and close to you. Every month rain or shine, our team of dedicated editors (and hardcore gamers!) put themselves in the line of fire to bring you news, previews and other things you will want to know.

The biggest challenge facing many game programmers is completing their game. Most game projects fizzle out, overwhelmed by the complexity of their own code. Game Programming Patterns tackles that exact problem. Based on years of experience in shipped AAA titles, this book collects proven patterns to untangle and optimize your game, organized as independent recipes so you can pick just the patterns you need. You will learn how to write a robust game loop, how to organize your entities using components, and take advantage of the CPUs cache to improve your performance. You'll dive deep into how scripting engines encode behavior, how quadtrees and other spatial partitions optimize your engine, and how other classic design patterns can be used in games.

Now in a fully revised and updated 5th edition, Sports Marketing: A Strategic Perspective is the most authoritative, comprehensive and engaging introduction to sports marketing currently available. It is the only introductory textbook to adopt a strategic approach, explaining clearly how every element of the marketing process should be designed and managed, from goal-setting and planning to implementation and control. Covering all the key topics in the sports marketing curriculum, including consumer behavior, market research, promotions, products, pricing, sponsorship, business ethics, technology and e-marketing, the book introduces core theory and concepts, explains best practice, and surveys the rapidly-changing, international sports business environment. Every chapter contains extensive real-world case studies and biographies of key industry figures and challenging review exercises which encourage the reader to reflect critically on their own knowledge and professional practice. The book’s companion website offers additional resources for instructors and students, including an instructors' guide, test bank, presentation slides and useful weblinks. Sports Marketing: A Strategic Perspective is an essential foundation for any sports marketing or sports business course, and an invaluable reference for any sports marketing practitioner looking to improve their professional practice.

The Most Useful Techniques for Analyzing Sports Data One of the greatest changes in the sports world in the past 20 years has been the use of mathematical methods to analyze performances, recognize trends and patterns, and predict results. Analytic Methods in Sports: Using Mathematics and Statistics to Understand Data from Baseball, Football, Basketball, and Other Sports provides a concise yet thorough introduction to the analytic and statistical methods that are useful in studying sports. The book gives you all the tools necessary to answer key questions in sports analysis. It explains how to apply the methods to sports data and interpret the results, demonstrating that the analysis of sports data is often different from standard statistical analysis. Requiring familiarity with mathematics but no previous background in statistics, the book integrates a large number of motivating sports examples throughout and offers guidance on computation and suggestions for further reading in each chapter.