AI for Sports (AI for Everything)

163 Pages·2022·3.259 MB·English

by  Chris Brady, Karl Tuyls, Shayegan Omidshafiei

AI for Sports
AI FOR EVERYTHING
Artificial intelligence (AI) is all around us. From driverless cars to
game winning computers to fraud protection, AI is already involved
in many aspects of life, and its impact will only continue to grow.
Many of the world’s most valuable companies are investing heavily
in AI research and development, and not a day goes by without news
of cutting-edge breakthroughs in AI and robotics.
The AI for Everything series will explore the role of AI in contempo-
rary life, from cars and aircraft to medicine, education, fashion and
beyond. Concise and accessible, each book is written by an expert
in the field and will bring the study and reality of AI to a broad
readership, including interested professionals, students, researchers
and lay readers.
AI for Immunology AI for Radiology
Louis J. Catania Oge Marques
AI for Cars AI for Games
Josep Aulinas & Hanky Sjafrie Ian Millington
AI for Digital Warfare AI for School Teachers
Niklas Hageback & Daniel Hedblom Rose Luckin, Karine George &
Mutlu Cukurova
AI for Art
Niklas Hageback & Daniel Hedblom AI for Learners
Carmel Kent & Benedict du Boulay
Ai for Creativity
Niklas Hageback AI for Social Justice
Alan Dix and Clara Crivellaro
AI for Death and Dying
Maggi Savin-Baden
For more information about this series please visit:
https://www .routledge .com /AI -for -Everything /book -series /AIFE
AI for Sports
Chris Brady
Karl Tuyls
Shayegan Omidshafiei
First Edition published 2022
by CRC Press
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and by CRC Press
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CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
© 2022 Chris Brady, Karl Tuyls, Shayegan Omidshafiei
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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Names: Brady, Christopher, 1947- author. | Tuyls, Karl, author. |
Omidshafiei, Shayegan, author.
Title: AI for sports / Chris Brady, Karl Tuyls, Shayegan Omidshafiei.
Other titles: Artificial intelligence for sports
Description: Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press, 2022. | Series: AI for everything
| Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021042743 | ISBN 9781032052021 (hardback) | ISBN
9781032048291 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003196532 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Sports--Data processing. | Sports--Mathematical models. |
Artificial intelligence.
Classification: LCC GV706.8 .B728 2022 | DDC 796.02/1--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021042743
ISBN: 978-1-032-05202-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-04829-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-19653-2 (ebk)
DOI: 10.1201/9781003196532
Typeset in Joanna
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Any opinions presented in this book are the personal views of the authors and do not neces-
sarily reflect the official policies or positions of their organizations.
In memory of Addie Brady who loved
to learn and would have loved to
have been involved with this book.
– Chris
To my lovely wife Marjolein and
children, Wout, Vincent and Arthur.
In loving memory of my father ir
Jan Tuyls, a role model for life.
– Karl
Dedicated to those who have
never had a book dedicated to
them, which (I think?) include
Leanne, Sara, Saied and Goli.
– Shayegan

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
About the Authors xi
Introduction 1
Part 1 How Did We Get to Where We Are?
1 Before Turing (pre-1950) 11
2 The Sports Analyst Cometh 23
3 Sabermetrics, Moneyball and AI 35
Part 2 Where Are We Now?
4 Technology Closes the Gap on Theory 49
5 The Sports Ecosystem 57
viii ◾ Contents
6 The Performance 65
7 AI in the Game 73
8 AI around the Game 87
Part 3 Where Do We Go from Here?
9 A Future within the Game 107
10 A Future around the Game 125
Conclusion 137
Index 141
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
How do an Englishman, a Belgian, and a Canadian-Iranian meet and
subsequently decide to jointly write a book on the vast possibilities
that artificial intelligence creates for sports?
Coincidence? Serendipity? Readers can decide for themselves.
Whatever it was, they formed a complementary team, sharing a
vision of AI for Sports in the short, mid and long term.
Stanford, March 2018 – Karl and Shayegan meet at a spring sym-
posium on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). Research interests between
both are well aligned, and in November 2018, Shayegan, an MIT
graduate, joined Karl’s Game Theory team at DeepMind.
Liverpool – London – Paris, November 2019 – Karl and
Shayegan start up a research project on AI for Sports, in close collab-
oration with Liverpool Football Club, including various DeepMind
researchers. Jointly they publish a paper on their work in the Journal
of Artificial Intelligence in April 2020: “Game Plan: What AI Can Do for
Football, and What Football Can Do for AI”.
London – Paris (virtual), December 2020 – Thore Graepel
introduces Karl to Elliott Morsia, commissioning editor for CRC
Press & Routledge, to discuss the opportunity of writing a book with