Sports Analytics and Performance
Sports Analytics and Performance is a research topic within Economics and Econometrics. Science Explorer counts 24k research works in it since 1950. 22.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.
This cluster of papers focuses on the economics of professional sports, including topics such as prediction markets, competitive balance, referee bias, home advantage, superstar effects, labor market dynamics, the gambler’s fallacy, revenue sharing, and market efficiency in the context of sporting contests.
- Prediction Markets
- Competitive Balance
- Referee Bias
- Home Advantage
- Superstar Effects
- Labor Market
- Gambler’s Fallacy
- Sporting Contests
- Revenue Sharing
- Market Efficiency
- Research works
- 24k fractional, since 1950
- In the world top 10%
- 5.4k per year above
- Top-10% rate
- 22.8% share of its works in the world top 10%
- Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
- +22% the tick is no change
Which countries lead Sports Analytics and Performance research?
By volume, the United States and China publish the most (984 and 604 works in 2022–2025).
By volume, 2022–2025
- 1 United States 984 works
- 2 China 604 works
- 3 United Kingdom 349 works
- 4 India 307 works
- 5 Germany 276 works
- 6 Türkiye 203 works
- 7 Spain 201 works
- 8 Brazil 150 works
- 9 Australia 149 works
- 10 Canada 144 works
How concentrated that is
The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.
Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.
Which institutions lead Sports Analytics and Performance research?
By volume in 2022–2025, German Sport University Cologne publishes the most Sports Analytics and Performance research, followed by Beijing Sport University and Loughborough University.
By volume, 2022–2025
- 1 German Sport University Cologne Germany 44 works
- 2 Beijing Sport University China 19 works
- 3 Loughborough University United Kingdom 16 works
- 4 University of Michigan United States 15 works
- 5 Shanghai University of Sport China 14 works
- 6 University of Münster Germany 13 works
- 7 Syracuse University United States 13 works
- 8 Technical University of Munich Germany 12 works
- 9 New York University United States 12 works
- 10 University of Waterloo Canada 12 works
Who are the leading researchers in Sports Analytics and Performance?
The most-cited researchers publishing on Sports Analytics and Performance include H. Eugene Stanley.
- 1 H. Eugene Stanley 5.5k citations
Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.
Where is Sports Analytics and Performance research done?
The largest centres of Sports Analytics and Performance research in 2022–2025 are Beijing (China), London (United Kingdom), Tokyo (Japan) and Shanghai (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Cologne.
Largest cities, 2022–2025
Where it is the local speciality
- CologneDE · 46.3 works8.3×
Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Sports Analytics and Performance than the world average.
Where is the best place to study Sports Analytics and Performance?
Among universities, judged by research, Manchester Metropolitan University, German Sport University Cologne and Loughborough University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.
One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.
| # | University | Score | Top 10% | Specialisation | Works | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom | 81.8 | 63.7% | 13.0× | 11 | +387.8% |
| 2 | German Sport University Cologne Germany | 71.2 | 31.3% | 151.6× | 44 | +66.0% |
| 3 | Loughborough University United Kingdom | 64.2 | 35.9% | 13.6× | 16 | +48.9% |
| 4 | Corvinus University of Budapest Hungary | 63.4 | 51.8% | 23.4× | 11 | +52.4% |
| 5 | Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Spain | 58.2 | 50.6% | 7.1× | 11 | +63.7% |
| 6 | Sheffield Hallam University United Kingdom | 56.8 | 50.5% | 16.2× | 8 | -2.8% |
| 7 | University of Lausanne Switzerland | 56.6 | 30.8% | 6.7× | 12 | +163.3% |
| 8 | Leeds Beckett University United Kingdom | 55.4 | 36.1% | 25.4× | 10 | +33.1% |
| 9 | Beijing Sport University China | 51.5 | 29.1% | 54.1× | 19 | -89.4% |
| 10 | University of Münster Germany | 51.5 | 35.9% | 7.8× | 13 | +30.5% |
Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.
Is Sports Analytics and Performance research growing?
Output in 2018–2022 was 22% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Sports Analytics and Performance.
The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.
Which topics inside it are moving
Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.