LISS football analytics symposium

Jesse Davis is Professor at the Department of Computer Science at KU Leuven, Belgium. His research focuses on developing novel artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning, and data mining techniques, with a particular emphasis on analyzing structured data. Jesse’s passions lie in using these techniques to make sense of lifestyle data, address problems in (elite) athlete monitoring and detecting anomalies. Prior to joining KU Leuven, he obtained his bachelor’s degree from Williams College, his PhD from the University of Wisconsin, and completed a post-doc at the University of Washington.

Jesse has co-founded and serves on the board of directors for two startups: Activ84Health and RunEASI. Activ84Health is an awarding winning start-up that develops innovative technology to motivate nursing home residents to be physically active and improve their quality of life. RunEASI is a recently launched company that aims to provide real-time biomechanical feedback about running, particularly in the context of rehabilitation.

For more than five years, prof. Bauer has been providing evidence to support sports experts decision-making. With a background in mathematics and computer science and a PhD from Tübingen University, he applies machine learning methods to sports data. As a Juniorprofessor in Sports Analytics at Saarland University, he is extending this research across sports. In 7 years of experience with the DFB and the German National Teams, prof. Bauer translated data-driven insights to the coaching staff for example during the World-Cup in Qatar 2022. He also worked with Zelus Analytics striving to establish the “Moneyball-approach” in the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, and many more. Holding an UEFA-A-level coaching license, he has 10 years experience working as a coach in semi-professional football (soccer).

Joris Bekkers is an independent sports data analytics consultant, specializing in analytics research, technical consulting, strategic consulting and software engineering. He has nearly 10 years of experience in cutting-edge football analytics working with on-ball event data, positional tracking data, and skeletal tracking data. Joris consults for sports organizations, startups, and data providers to develop advanced analytics solutions, production-ready software, research and development and offers insights into all aspects of the football analytics landscape. Beyond client work, Joris advocates for open-source sports analytics as a co-founder of PySport, by maintaining the UnRavelSports Python package and contributing to kloppy.