The SportsDataverse Initiative

class: center, middle, inverse, title-slide

.title[
# The SportsDataverse Initiative
]
.author[
### Saiem Gilani
]
.date[
### 2022-06-28
]

---

## Overview

The topic of our conversation will be centered around how the SportsDataverse developer group is trying to build lasting solutions for accessing sports data and analytics.

**Slide Link**: [`slides.sportsdataverse.org/`](https://slides.sportsdataverse.org/)

---
### **The Goals**

* Creating open-source sports data resources for the community 
* Making the sports analytics industry more diverse, inclusive, and accessible

### **Some Solutions**

* Building an extensive set of open-source sports data repositories
--

* Create packages to access the data in Python, R, and Node.js
--

* Establish the bench of developers from diverse backgrounds to spearhead projects and make contributions
--

* Create new resources for women's sports to spur reproducible research.

---

### First Things First

Saiem Gilani - Lead Engineer of the SportsDataverse <a href='https://twitter.com/saiemgilani' target='blank'><img src='https://img.shields.io/twitter/follow/saiemgilani?color=blue&amp;label=%40saiemgilani&amp;logo=twitter&amp;style=for-the-badge' alt='@saiemgilani'/></a> <a href='https://github.com/saiemgilani' target='blank'><img src='https://img.shields.io/github/followers/saiemgilani?color=eee&amp;logo=Github&amp;style=for-the-badge' alt='@saiemgilani'/></a>

#### What I do

ML Engineer by trade, currently working for the Houston Rockets as the Director of Data Science & Engineering.

#### How I got into open-source sports analytics

* Working as an analytics contributor with the folks at [TomahawkNation](https://www.tomahawknation.com/), the FSU SBNation site covering my hometown Seminoles

* Started contributing on my first open-source sports project, `cfbscrapR`, in early 2020

---

### The SportsDataverse Initiative 💡

"...*the idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to -- to scrape the data we never could.*"-
 
 .pull-right[~ *Nick FuRy* 
 ]
 
 
I had a thought I am sure many of the long-standing members of the sports analytics community has had.

* *what if getting sports data for analysis was easy?*

* *what if we worked together to build the data infrastructure for research?*
  
  * *how much further would we get?*
    
---

### What the SportsDataverse is:

* An organization trying to make the sports data and analytics industry more diverse, inclusive, and accessible by providing high-quality resources for end-users and opportunities for practical code skill development for those that join the effort  
   💡 + 💻 + 📈 
   
--

* A community of developers committed to developing and maintaining open-source sports data packages and pipelines as on-going public utilities   
   👥 + 💬 + 👩‍💻 + 📦

* A set of packages for loading and scraping sports data in R, Python, and Node.js with focus placed on play-by-play data 
<a href="https://r.sportsdataverse.org/" target="_blank" alt="R"> <img src="https://www.vectorlogo.zone/logos/r-project/r-project-icon.svg" alt="R" width="40" height="40"/> </a> + <a href="https://py.sportsdataverse.org" alt="Saiem's Python Packages" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/python/python-original.svg" alt="python" width="40" height="40"/> </a> + <a href="https://js.sportsdataverse.org" target="_blank"> <img src="figures/nodejs.png" alt="nodejs" width="60" height="50"/> </a>

* A set of corresponding data repositories which allow fast loading of the data for users and collectively form one of the largest open-source sports data resources with **over 250Gb of data produced** from the packages I contribute to   
   🔑 + 👑
   
---
### Function (naming) follows form

* Function names indicate the data source.
  - If the function starts with `load_`, `build_`, or `update_`, the data is coming from the data repository
  - Otherwise, it will be an abbreviation for the website supplying the data (i.e. `espn_`, `nba_`, `ncaa_`) for most other external functions

.split-left[
#### Common Scraper Package Design
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/saiemgilani/The_SportsDataverse_Initiative/main/figures/api-scraper.png" width="47%" />
 
]
.split-right[
#### SportsDataverse Package Design
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/saiemgilani/The_SportsDataverse_Initiative/main/figures/api-datastore.png" width="47%" />
 
]
---
### Package Installation

Let's try out a few of the packages I have written for a quick walk-through of how the functions work.

We will be working with `cfbfastR`, `hoopR`, and `wehoop`, `fastRhockey` and `baseballr`. I prefer the `pacman` package for easy package loading and installation:

```r
install.packages(c(
  'cfbfastR', 
  'hoopR', 
  'wehoop', 
  'fastRhockey', 
  'baseballr'),
  repos = c("https://cloud.r-project.org"))
```

---

## PBP Loading 
 - Season-level from data repo
 - Available for `cfbfastR`, `hoopR`, `wehoop`, `fastRhockey` (unavailable for `baseballr` at present)
 
### Load the Libraries

```r
library(cfbfastR)
library(hoopR)
library(wehoop)
library(fastRhockey)
library(baseballr)
```
--
### College Football

```r
cfb_pbp <- cfbfastR::load_cfb_pbp(2021)
```

### NFL

```r
# go use the nflverse, wyd
```

---
## Loading 
 - Season-level from data repo
   * Play-by-Play 
   * Team Boxscore
   * Player Boxscore
   
### Men's College Basketball

```r
mbb_pbp <- hoopR::load_mbb_pbp(2021)
mbb_team_box <- hoopR::load_mbb_team_box(2021)
mbb_player_box <- hoopR::load_mbb_player_box(2021)
```

### Women's College Basketball

```r
wbb_pbp <- wehoop::load_wbb_pbp(2021)
wbb_team_box <- wehoop::load_wbb_team_box(2021)
wbb_player_box <- wehoop::load_wbb_player_box(2021)
```

---
## Loading 
 - Season-level from data repo
   * Play-by-Play 
   * Team Boxscore
   * Player Boxscore
 
### NBA

```r
nba_pbp <- hoopR::load_nba_pbp(2021)
nba_team_box <- hoopR::load_nba_team_box(2021)
nba_player_box <- hoopR::load_nba_player_box(2021)
```

### WNBA

```r
wnba_pbp <- wehoop::load_wnba_pbp(2021)
wnba_team_box <- wehoop::load_wnba_team_box(2021)
wnba_player_box <- wehoop::load_wnba_player_box(2021)
```

---
## Loading 
 - Season-level from data repo
   * Play-by-Play 
   * Team Boxscore
   * Player Boxscore
 
### NHL

```r
nhl_pbp <- fastRhockey::load_nhl_pbp(2021)
nhl_team_box <- fastRhockey::load_nhl_team_box(2021)
nhl_player_box <- fastRhockey::load_nhl_player_box(2021)
```

### PHF (Premier Hockey Federation)

```r
phf_pbp <- fastRhockey::load_phf_pbp(2021)
phf_team_box <- fastRhockey::load_phf_team_box(2021)
phf_player_box <- fastRhockey::load_phf_player_box(2021)
```

---
## SportsDataverse Packages
### R <a href="https://r.sportsdataverse.org/" target="_blank" alt="R"> <img src="https://www.vectorlogo.zone/logos/r-project/r-project-icon.svg" alt="R" width="40" height="40"/> </a>

[25]: https://github.com/sportsdataverse/cfbfastR
  [26]: https://cfbfastR.sportsdataverse.org
  [1]: https://github.com/sportsdataverse/hoopR
  [2]: https://hoopR.sportsdataverse.org
  [3]: https://github.com/sportsdataverse/wehoop
  [4]: https://wehoop.sportsdataverse.org
  [5]: https://github.com/jacklich10/gamezoneR
  [6]: https://jacklich10.github.io/gamezoneR/
  [7]: https://github.com/JaseZiv/worldfootballR
  [8]: https://jaseziv.github.io/worldfootballR
  [9]: https://github.com/BillPetti/baseballr
  [10]: https://BillPetti.github.io/baseballr
  [13]: https://github.com/sportsdataverse/fastRhockey
  [14]: https://fastRhockey.sportsdataverse.org
  [17]: https://github.com/sportsdataverse/cfbplotR
  [18]: https://cfbplotR.sportsdataverse.org
  [19]: https://github.com/sportsdataverse/cfb4th
  [20]: https://cfb4th.sportsdataverse.org
  [21]: https://github.com/Puntalytics/puntr
  [22]: https://puntalytics.github.io/puntr/
  [23]: https://github.com/sportsdataverse/recruitR
  [24]: https://recruitR.sportsdataverse.org
  
---
### Thank you

* The seriously awesome community of developers that helps build and maintain resources 
* All y'all for listening in

### Learn more

* [`sportsdataverse`.org](https://www.sportsdataverse.org/) 
<a href='https://twitter.com/sportsdataverse' target='blank'><img src='https://img.shields.io/twitter/follow/sportsdataverse?color=blue&amp;label=%40SportsDataverse&amp;logo=twitter&amp;style=for-the-badge' alt='@sportsdataverse'/></a>

* [Game on Paper](https://gameonpaper.com/cfb/) - for a look at the `sportsdataverse` python package serving live advanced stats with expected points and win probability metrics.

### Questions?