Sam M
- Research Program Mentor
Industry expert at Syracuse University
Expertise
NCAA, NFL, NASCAR, and NBA industry experience; consulting across sports business and analytics; DraftKings analytics; published sports economics research; SQL, Python, and R programming; Tableau data visualization; Microsoft Office Suite; strategic insights in sponsorship, ticketing, and fan engagement.
Bio
Hi everyone! My name is Sam Marteka and I graduated from Syracuse University in May 2021 with a Sport Analytics degree and minors in Strategic Management, Sport Management, and Sport Revenue Operations. I bring a diverse background in sports analytics and business strategy, with hands-on experience across the NCAA, NFL, NASCAR, and NBA. My career spans corporate partnerships, consulting, sports betting, and published research as a contributing author in sports economics. I specialize in leveraging data to uncover actionable insights, drive fan engagement, and support strategic decision-making across ticketing, sponsorship, and marketing initiatives. I’m proficient in SQL, Python, and R for data analysis and modeling, with strong data visualization skills in Tableau and advanced expertise across the Microsoft Office Suite. I love to watch/play sports, collect sports cards, play video games, and follow the stock and crypto markets.Project ideas
Sport Contract and Player Valuation
This project focuses on predicting sports contracts by leveraging data science and financial modeling techniques. Students will gather and clean data on player performance, historical contracts, and market conditions, applying statistical analysis and machine learning to build predictive models. The project involves feature engineering, model development, and evaluation, with the aim of understanding key variables that influence contract values. Outcomes include a research paper, predictive models, data visualization dashboards, and presentations, providing insights into the economic dynamics of sports contracts and equipping students with practical skills in data analysis and financial forecasting.
Analyzing Prime Time & Game of the Week Game Totals in the NFL
This project explores how over/under point totals in NFL betting markets are influenced by game timing and national broadcast exposure. Students will gain hands-on experience conducting a full analytics workflow—starting with web scraping and data collection, progressing through data cleaning and wrangling, and culminating in insightful visualizations and trend analysis. Using historical NFL score and betting line data, this project builds critical skills in data manipulation, hypothesis testing, and storytelling through data.