The Impact of Analytics in a Zero-Sum Game with Ari Kaplan, Head of Evangelism at Databricks

Whether you work in retail, healthcare, or CPG, data analytics is key to making your business stand out. You’re able to find new sources of data, synthesize them, and then work with business folks to get better and better insights. Even with all of the advantages analytics offers us, sometimes there’s hesitancy to invest in data. In sports, it’s the exact opposite. The use of data is felt immediately in game wins, player selection, and gate revenue.

Known as “The Real Moneyball guy,” Ari Kaplan has revolutionized sports through analytics and is a leading influencer in the area, as well as in AI and data. He helped create analytics departments for the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Baltimore Orioles. Ari is now Head of Evangelism at Databricks where his team helped the Texas Rangers clinch their first World Series title. Satyen and Ari discuss data analytics in sports, how data intelligence platforms are shifting the landscape, and the concept of generation AI.

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“Even if we change nothing else, to be able to make better predictions of player development, finding what skills are better in the draft, predicting injuries and so on, that's part of the competitive advantages. How can we ingest this data? It's a ton of data. Terabytes of data every game, multiply that by dozens and dozens of teams at all levels around the world. Right now, teams are struggling to store it, process it on a daily basis. Teams that could do that faster will be an advantage. For listeners, if you're not in the baseball world, same idea. If you're in retail, CPG, healthcare, it's finding new sources of data, proprietary, nonproprietary. How could you synthesize it? Then, how can you start working with the business people to get better and better and better insights?” – Ari Kaplan

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Time Stamps:

*(03:00): The birth of Moneyball

*(10:11): How the Texas Rangers hit a data home run

*(15:49): The next evolution: data intelligence

*(27:17): Partnering for success in the ecosystem

*(38:54): The role of AI in building the future

*(41:29): Satyen’s Takeaways

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Sponsor

This podcast is presented by Alation.

Learn more:

* Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alation.com/podcast/

* Alation’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/alation/

* Satyen’s LinkedIn Profile: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ssangani/

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Links

Learn more about Raoul Wallenberg’s fate

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