The NBA is well ahead of most other major global sports properties in its embrace of data and analytics - along with directly and indirectly providing inclined fans relevant outlets in those fields - and the NBA Basketball Analytics Hackathon is yet another example.
The league's inaugural hackathon will take place Sept. 24 in New York, the NBA announced last week. The event is open to graduate and undergrad students at U.S. universities and successful applicants will compete to solve specific basketball questions with data that's provided.
"We don't want to reveal the question but it's going to be around a hot topic in the league, the type of thing that the league office and teams would want to know," NBA director of basketball analytics Jason Rosenfeld said, according to Nylon Calculus' Ian Levy.
"Our fans continue to show an increasing level of interest in data and analytics which provides a level of engagement," Rosenfeld added. "We think that by bringing together some of the most talented young minds for a full day to build tools and develop solutions in the field of basketball analytics, we can continue to innovate, which is something that the NBA has embraced for a very long time."
Interested students can apply for the event through the NBA website.
