MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference continues to make strides in data acceptance

By DAN GELSTON
AP Sports Writer

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jessica Gelman has become an influential leader and innovator in the sports industry. She co-founded the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. She teamed with Philadelphia 76ers President Daryl Morey to not only found the conference, but guide it into the preeminent forum for number-crunchers. The conference runs Friday and Saturday in Boston. It exploded from a one-day, on-campus affair in 2007 that attracted barely 200 people to the Super Bowl of Stats that will host a sold-out crowd of 2,500 people at a downtown convention center. Gelman and Morey grew it into such a behemoth in the sports world that it hosted former President Barack Obama as the keynote speaker in 2018.