Skill, Luck, and Impact: Data Analysis in Football

How much of football is skill, how much is luck, and where does data fit in? 🤔 Join the UCL Data Science Society for an evening with Ian Graham, one of the original architects of football’s data revolution and the former Director of Research at Liverpool FC. Hear how analytics has changed the way the game is played, scouted and understood, and bring your questions for the discussion afterwards. 🎤 Our speaker

Ian Graham is the founder of sports advisory business Ludonautics, where he develops statistical tools for predicting football matches and analysing player performance. Between 2012 and 2023, he was Director of Research at Liverpool FC, where he built the first in-house analytics department in the Premier League. His time there coincided with the club’s greatest period of success since the 1980s, including the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League title in 2020, Liverpool’s first league title in 30 years. He previously spent seven years as head of football research at Decision Technology, and in 2024 he published How to Win the Premier League . Before working in football, he completed a PhD in Physics at the University of Cambridge. 💡 All backgrounds welcome. You don’t need to know anything about football or data science to come along.