Students will soon have the chance to study the art of sports analytics at a new Business of Sports Institute within the University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business, established by a $1.4 million gift from Accenture, a Fortune Global 500 company that specializes in IT services and consulting.
"This partnership hinges on the power of Accenture's capabilities and proven track record of turning insights into revenue-generating businesses," Berger said. "That coupled with UT’s dedication to athletic excellence and McCombs’ position as a leading business program, creates an unbeatable formula for pushing the envelope in sports analytics, sports science and sports business.”
The new institute will create curriculum and applied research opportunities related to sports analytics and business, offering tracks focusing on data science and analytics, entrepreneurship and the science of high performance. According to an April 2020 report in Forbes, the sports analytics market is expanding at a rate of more than 30% and is expected to reach $4.6 billion by 2025.
“There is no other major business school in the country bringing on-field, on-court performance analytics into the curriculum, into the research lab, and to sports industry leaders like we are,” said Ethan Burris, faculty director of the McCombs School’s Center for Leadership and Ethics. “Talent management, performance metrics, sports-adjacent verticals and branding — there are a ton of topic areas we are poised to tackle.”