Skip to main content
Dantes.io Logo
Dantes.io

Best resources to learnSports Analytics

Study sheet

Sports analytics uses data to evaluate players and tactics. You will learn the key metrics across sports, statistical modelling, tracking data and how teams use analytics for decisions.

8 resources · · How we curate

📺YouTube(1)

youtube

Friends of Tracking

Video lectures and coding tutorials recorded in 2020 by club and federation data scientists. Covers tracking data, pitch control, valuing passes and player actions, expected goals and how analysts work inside professional football clubs. Only free source where club practitioners teach tracking-data methods (Shaw's Metrica pitch-control series, Spearman's off-ball scoring). Complements Soccermatics, which is text-first.

intermediate🇬🇧

🎓Courses(1)

course

Soccermatics: Mathematical Modelling of Football

Free Python course on football data covering event-data visualisation, expected goals models, passing networks, Expected Threat and Markov action values, pitch control, tracking-data positioning, physical metrics and player scouting with StatsBomb, Wyscout and Metrica data. The most complete free soccer-analytics curriculum, with code, lectures and exercises on open data.

intermediate🇬🇧

📚Books(3)

bookPaid

Basketball on Paper: Rules and Tools for Performance Analysis

Foundational basketball analytics text introducing possession-based evaluation, offensive and defensive ratings, the Four Factors and individual credit for team results, with derivations of each method from box-score data.

intermediate🇬🇧
bookPaid

Mathletics (2nd Edition)

Cross-sport book applying regression, probability and simulation to baseball, football, basketball, hockey, soccer and other sports. Covers player ratings, win probability, fourth-down and lineup decisions, point spreads and ranking systems, with worked spreadsheet examples. The best single cross-sport survey that teaches the actual calculations rather than narrating them.

intermediate🇬🇧
book

Analyzing Baseball Data with R (3rd Edition)

Textbook teaching sabermetrics through R and the tidyverse using Lahman, Retrosheet and Statcast data. Covers run expectancy, win probability, catcher framing, career trajectories, simulation and Shiny apps. Method-first: every chapter pairs a baseball question with reproducible code on real public data. The full third edition is readable free online.

intermediate🇬🇧

🌐Websites(3)

website

A Beginner's Guide to nflfastR

Hands-on R tutorial for NFL play-by-play data: loading seasons with nflreadr, filtering and summarising plays, EPA and success rate, plotting with team logos, and building a regression model that predicts team win totals. Primary documentation from the toolmakers; the standard first step for NFL analysis and the most practical free starting point for that sport.

beginner🇬🇧
website

FanGraphs Sabermetrics Library

Reference library defining baseball's core analytic metrics, including wOBA, wRC+, FIP, xFIP, SIERA, UZR, DRS and WAR, with principles pages on sample size, regression to the mean, park factors and descriptive versus predictive statistics. The clearest free explanation of what each metric measures, how it is built and when to use it.

beginner🇬🇧
website

Basketball-Reference

Statistics database covering NBA, ABA, WNBA and college basketball, with box scores, game logs, season and career totals, and advanced metrics such as PER, win shares and box plus/minus. Learners can look up historical data and compare players and teams quantitatively.

intermediate🇬🇧
Share this topic

More in Team Sports

See all 10 topics in Team Sports →

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best free resources to learn Sports Analytics?

Dantes has curated 8 resources for Sports Analytics, including 1 YouTube videos, 3 books, 1 courses, 3 websites. All resources are hand-picked for quality — no algorithmic filler. Browse the full list above to find the format that works best for you.

Is Sports Analytics hard to learn?

Sports Analytics is approachable at the beginner level — there are resources here specifically for those starting from scratch. As you progress, intermediate and advanced material is also available to take your skills further.

What types of Sports Analytics learning resources are available on Dantes?

For Sports Analytics, Dantes has curated 1 YouTube videos, 3 books, 1 courses, 3 websites. Each resource type serves a different learning style: videos and YouTube for visual learners, books for depth, courses for structured progression, and websites for quick reference.

How does Dantes select Sports Analytics resources?

Dantes is an algorithm-free learning directory. Resources are hand-curated based on quality, accuracy, and usefulness — not engagement metrics or paid placements. The goal is to surface the best learning material for Sports Analytics, whether it's a free YouTube series, a classic textbook, or an open courseware from a top university.

Go deeper

Test your understanding of Sports Analytics

Explain it out loud. An AI tutor listens and asks questions that expose gaps you didn't know you had.