data, prediction, and the human side of soccer

Future of the beautiful game

Together with the German Consulate New York, University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr), and Columbia Global Reports, the DWIH New York is delighted to host a breakfast conversation featuring Andreas Groll, TU Dortmund University, and Jonathan D. Cohen, author of Losing Big.

From player recruitment and match forecasting to fan engagement and betting markets, data increasingly shapes the global game. Yet soccer continues to resist complete predictability. Unlike sports built around isolated plays and measurable outcomes, soccer remains fluid, emotional, and deeply human.

This conversation explores the growing role of analytics in soccer while asking a broader question: Can we truly capture what makes the beautiful game beautiful? Bringing together perspectives from statistics, culture, and sports research, the breakfast will examine where predictive models succeed, where they fall short, and what this reveals about uncertainty, decision-making, and collective behavior both on and off the pitch.

This event is by invitation only. If you are working in the fields of sports analytics, statistics, sports research, data science, or science communication and would like to attend, please e-mail events@dwih.org.

Agenda
8:30 AM – Guest Arrival & Breakfast
8:45 AM – Welcome and Introduction
8:50 AM – Breakfast Conversation
9:30 AM – Q&A
9:45 AM – Networking
10:00 AM – Event Ends

Event Information

June 23, 2026, 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM

German House 871 1st Ave, New York
Organizer(s): UA Ruhr, Columbia Global Reports, DWIH New York

Prof. Dr. Andreas Groll is Professor of Statistical Methods for Big Data at the department of Statistics at TU Dortmund University, where he also leads the Statistical Methods for Big Data research group. His research focuses on variable selection and regularization, generalized linear and additive models, time-to-event analysis, categorical data, semi-parametric regression, and sports analytics, including the modelling and prediction of international sports tournaments.

Before joining TU Dortmund as an associate Professor in 2019, he held positions as assistant Professor at TU Dortmund and as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Göttingen and LMU Munich, where he also completed his doctorate in statistics.

Prof. Andreas Groll
Jonathan D. Cohen leads gambling policy at the American Institute for Boys and Men. He is the author of For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America as well as the co-editor of Long Walk Home: Reflections on Bruce Springsteen, and All In: The Spread of Gambling in Twentieth-Century United States. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and many other outlets. He lives in New Haven, CT. In Losing Big, historian Jonathan D. Cohen lays out the astonishing emergence of online sports gambling, from sportsbook executives drafting legislation to an addicted gambler confessing their $300,000 losses. Sports gambling is here to stay, and the stakes could not be higher. Losing Big explains how this brewing crisis came to be, and how it can be addressed before new generations get hooked.
Jonathan D. Cohen