Thematic issue on "statistics for performance and match analysis in sports - editorial"

Statistics is more and more adopted in all sports with a variety of aims, ranging from predicting the outcome of a match of competition [3] and the analysis of performance [6, 7], to the prediction and prevention of injuries [9], amongst many others. Statistical research and application in sports are fostered by the joint force of I) the increased availability of large amounts of data of different types (e.g., play-by-play, trajectories, images) and from several sources (e.g., manual annotation, sensors, and tracking systems) and ii) the advances in information technologies and the computer storing capabilities [5, 8].