Analytics Cup 2.0
This page is used to submit your final Analytics Cup project.
The Analytics Cup returns for its second edition, bringing the global sports analytics community together around open-source work and professional tracking data.
This year, the competition expands beyond football. Participants can build projects using Football or Basketball tracking data, with separate competitions culminating in live finals in Paris and Boston.
The aim is simple: create sports analytics work that is not only interesting, but can live beyond the competition as a contribution to the open-source ecosystem in the form of a new open-source package, or a contribution to an existing project.
Choose Your Competition
Participants choose one regional competition:
- Europe with the final event in Paris
- USA with the final event in Boston
Within your chosen region, you may enter:
- Football
- Basketball
- Both, as two separate submissions
You may participate individually or as a team of two.
Finalists must be able to attend their selected final in person.
Your Submission
Each submission consists of three parts:
1. One-minute video
A publicly accessible YouTube video of at most one minute.
Use it to pitch the project:
- What problem did you address?
- What did you build or discover?
- Why does it matter?
The video must be presented and voiced by you or your teammate.
2. Public GitHub repository
A publicly available repository containing all code relevant to the project under an open-source licence.
Your repository should contain everything required to understand and reproduce the work, excluding the competition datasets themselves.
Include a LICENSE.md file.
3. README
A README.md of at most 1,000 words, containing a maximum of two figures or tables in total.
Use the README to provide the evidence and technical detail that cannot fit into the one-minute pitch.
How Projects Are Judged
Every submission is evaluated on five equally weighted criteria:
Relevance - 20%
Does the project address a meaningful sporting question or real-world problem?
Methodology - 20%
Is the analysis technically sound, transparent and appropriate for the question?
Originality - 20%
Does the project introduce a fresh idea, approach or application?
Communication - 20%
Is the work presented clearly and supported by effective evidence or visualisation?
Open-source potential - 20%
Can the method and code become a clean, reusable contribution to the wider sports analytics ecosystem, either as part of an existing package or as a new package?
The Finals
The strongest submissions from each regional competition will be invited to present their work live.
- Europe Final — Paris
- USA Final — Boston
Finalists present their projects to an expert panel from sports, analytics and open-source development.
Finalists may also receive access to additional SkillCorner data under a separate EULA to test, extend or further develop their project before the final event.
Remote finalist presentations are not accepted.
From Competition Project to Open Source
The Analytics Cup is designed around what happens after the competition.
All submissions are open-source, allowing others to reproduce, reuse and develop the work further.
Winning projects receive an open-source grant intended to turn the competition entry into a lasting contribution. This could mean:
- developing the project into a standalone Python package; or
- contributing the methodology or tooling to an existing open-source package.
The first Analytics Cup demonstrated this model in practice: winning work was subsequently developed into functionality within the open-source DataBallPy package. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}
Before You Submit
Make sure that:
- you are registered for the correct regional competition;
- your Football and Basketball projects are submitted separately;
- your repository is public;
- your project uses an open-source licence;
- your submission complies with the Analytics Cup rules;
- at least one team member can attend the selected final in person if chosen as a finalist.
Read the full Analytics Cup Rules before submitting.
Community
The Analytics Cup is built around open collaboration.
Use the dedicated Discord community to meet other participants, discuss the datasets, ask questions and share knowledge throughout the competition.
Participants may collaborate and discuss ideas, but each submitted project must represent the original work of the individual or team submitting it.
Submissions close on 2026-12-19 00:01 (UTC), 3 months from now.