Analytic Methods in Sports: Using Mathematics and Statistics to Understand Data from Baseball, Football, Basketball, and Other Sports 1st Edition by Thomas A. Severini

Analytic Methods in Sports: Using Mathematics and Statistics to Understand Data from Baseball, Football, Basketball, and Other Sports by Thomas A. Severini is a comprehensive guide to sports analytics, with a 3rd edition released on January 19, 2026. 

Key Features of the 2nd and New 3rd Editions

This textbook is designed for students and professionals and only requires basic algebra. The book covers a range of sports, including baseball, football, and basketball. It provides instructions for using R and Excel for analysis and discusses advanced methods such as random effects and spline methods. The book includes exercises and provides access to over 40 datasets, and the new edition includes applications for fantasy sports. 

Table of Contents

The book's table of contents covers topics from basic introductions to data description and probability. It delves into statistical methods like margin of error and significance, and explores the use of correlation and linear regression for modeling relationships. The book also includes a chapter on advanced methods such as random forests and splines. 

About the Author

Thomas A. Severini is a Professor of Statistics and Data Science at Northwestern University. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and holds a PhD from the University of Chicago. His research interests include likelihood inference and econometrics.