ABSTRACT
Soccer is a sport with a global reach, with bookmakers, broadcasters, and newspapers all in need of data and statistics to promote interest amongst fans and recruit potential customers. Such is the demand for data analysis in sport that a multi-million dollar global market in soccer analytics has emerged, with top clubs, bookmakers, and broadcasters all employing statisticians and data scientists to give them an edge over competitors. One of the main tools used by these analysts is the statistical programming language R, which is an easy-to-learn, free, open-source software package. This book is an accessible introduction to the use of R for analysing soccer data. It is soccer-focused, rather than statistics-focused, and is aimed at all those wanting to develop their analytical skills, whatever their background. In this introductory chapter, we explore how R can be used to perform a wide variety of soccer-related tasks, including evaluating the performance of team managers, assessing match odds, and making predictions using simple linear regression.
