In the early years of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, a couple hundred math whizzes gathered on the school’s campus hoping for a breakthrough that would make them the next Bill James.
As the event and the field grew, they aspired to professional front office jobs, like Theo Epstein or Daryl Morey.
Now the revered names at the cavernous convention center in Boston’s Back Bay are people like sports bettor-turned Dallas Mavericks number-cruncher Haralabos Voulgaris and other current or former professional gamblers who are using analytics to gain an edge as legal sports betting spreads across the United States.
“Math has always been in gambling to some degree,” said Jeff Ma, a professional bettor and a former member of the MIT blackjack team, who moderated this year’s gambling panel.
Perhaps not since the publication of Michael Lewis’ book “Moneyball,” which detailed Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane’s use of analytics to build a roster for his underfunded team, has an event so energized the statistical community.
