Several times over the past few years, I have considered studying a masters or MBA within sports analytics or finance. I never found a central list of many courses, let alone anything that compared different courses at different universities.
Below is a list of the courses I found and felt were interesting enough to be bookmarked. I have to admit that this list is not extensive and one thing I have seen is that the number of potential courses is rapidly increasing as the sports analytics and finance industries both grow. I am hoping that this list helps someone who is starting to research potential courses in this field.
The list is split into analytical degrees, finance degrees, other sports related degrees and then a final section on shorter courses, some of which are completely free. The courses are heavily tailored to soccer, due to that being my personal preference when originally seeking out potential courses. One thing I quickly found was that hundreds of universities offer Sports Management based MBAs, so I have not provided a list for them.
Analytical Degrees
- American University – Online Master of Science in Sports Analytics and Management
- La Trobe University – Masters of Sports Analytics
- Syracuse University – BSc Sports Analytics
- Northwestern University – Sports Analytics Specialization Masters
- Indiana University – Master of Science in Applied Data Science with a specialization in Sports Analytics
- Loughborough University – MSc Sport Analytics and Technologies
Finance Degrees
- Liverpool University – Football Industries MBA
- La Liga Business School – Masters in Football Management. There is also Sports Marketing and Sports Law degrees available. LA Liga MBA
- Johan Cruff Institute – Masters of Football Business (in partnership with Barcelona FC). There are also many different soccer courses available.
- FBA – Masters in Football Business
- Postgraduate Course in International Football Business, accredited by the University of Brussels (VUB) and operated by the International Football Business Institute
- University Campus of Football Business (UCFB) offers many undergraduate and post graduate degrees focusing on the sports industry.
- Bucks New University – BA Football Business and Finance
Other Degrees
- University Uninettuno (in partnership with Sheffield FC, Leeds United FC and 5Gobal) offer an array of online football focused MBAs and undergrad degrees. The MBA options are Football Club CEO; Football/Sports Intermediary; Professional Football Scouting: and, the Pioneer in Football MBA
- Sports Management Worldwide provide a Sports Management MBA via Concordia University. They also provide an array of shorter courses, for example an 8 week Baseball Analytics course
- E-Careers – Football Intermediary Professional Programme
Free/MOOC Courses/Short Courses
- Open University – The Business of Football
- The Price of Football – Kieran Maguire, Liverpool University Football Industries MBA
- StatsBomb Introduction to Analytics Course
- Northwestern University – Sports Marketing
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona– Sport Sponsorship
- University of Houston – Math behind Moneyball
- Experfy – Sports Analytics
- University of Canberra – Sports Informatics and Analytics Course
- Northumbria University – Introduction to Sport Performance Analysis
- Soccer Hub – Soccer Analyst (level 1): Game Analysis
- Daniel Geey (a famous UK sports lawyer) provides a 12 part YouTube podcast series on many financial and legal issues within the soccer industry
This article was written by David Martin. Check out his site ‘Actuaries FC’ where he’ll be writing more sports analytics content as well as writing with us.