Get in the Game: An Interactive Introduction to Sports Analytics

Get in the Game, a book by mathematician and sports analytics expert Tim Chartier, uses simple mathematics to explain improbable feats in sports and introduce readers to statistics. It offers engaging exercises and comic book-style illustrations to make complex concepts accessible to a wide audience, including sports fans who may not have encountered formal statistics before.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 160 pages
Publication date: 30 August 2022
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

An award-winning math popularizer, who has advised the US Olympic Committee, NFL, and NBA, offers sports fans a new way to understand truly improbable feats in their favorite games. In 2013, NBA point guard Steph Curry wowed crowds when he sank 11 out of 13 three-pointers for a game total of 54 points—only seven other players, including Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, had scored more in a game at Madison Square Garden. Four years later, the University of Connecticut women's basketball team won its hundredth straight game, defeating South Carolina 66–55. And in 2010, one forecaster—an octopus named Paul—correctly predicted the outcome of all of Germany's matches in the FIFA World Cup. These are surprising events—but are they truly improbable?

In Get in the Game, mathematician and sports analytics expert Tim Chartier helps us answer that question—condensing complex mathematics down to coin tosses and dice throws to give readers both an introduction to statistics and a new way to enjoy sporting events. With these accessible tools, Chartier leads us through modeling experiments that develop our intuitive sense of the improbable. For example, to see how likely you are to beat Curry's three-pointer feat, consider his 45.3 percent three-point shooting average in 2012–13. Take a coin and assume heads is making the shot (slightly better than Curry at a fifty percent chance). Can you imagine getting heads eleven out of thirteen times? With engaging exercises and fun, comic book-style illustrations by Ansley Earle, Chartier's book encourages all readers—including those who have never encountered formal statistics or data simulations, or even heard of sports analytics, but who enjoy watching sports—to get in the game.

Dimension: 229 x 152 x 13 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780226811147