Data and Analytics Challenge

The Challenge

Exploring sports and leisure in the North East

Use data and analytics to solve problems involving sports and leisure activities in the North East. These are hypothetical scenarios where you should apply your intellectual curiosity to search for insights and solutions.

Overview

The questions have been written to be solvable in Excel or by coding. They are designed to be challenging and would expect to take a couple of days to complete. A good approach would be to understand the problem, define the metrics needed and clearly outline the steps to reach your final answer.

Questions are given different weightings. These weightings act as an indicator on how long we expect you to spend on each question.

Question 1 | Weighting 30%

Revenue of sport and leisure industry in the North East

The North East of England has a thriving sports community; home to the Great North Run, Newcastle UFC, Newcastle UWFC, Sunderland AFC, Sunderland AFC Women, Durham County Cricket Club and many more. The impact on the culture of the North East is undeniable, and we would like to explore the contribution that leisure activities provides to the North East’s economy.

We would like you to:

Estimate the revenue that sporting events and leisure activities generate for the North East
We have listed some sources below to get you started, but you may use any other source that is relevant
Forecast the revenue generated by 2030 based on current trends
Present a short proposal on how to increase the revenue generated by sporting events and leisure activities
Support your proposal with evidence

Please clearly highlight the sources you have used and explain any assumptions made.

Question 2 | Weighting 50%

Analysis of half-marathon times

Each year in September, over 50,000 people take part in the Great North Run, travelling from all over the world to compete for a first-place finish or set a new personal best. With such intense competition comes the need to train and to ensure that the training is as efficient and effective as possible.

We have a dataset from a previous North East Half Marathon – Geordie Stride Half Marathon, which contains race times of participants as well as other information.

We need your help to solve the following problems

Problem 1

There are 14 variables available in this dataset. For each variable:

Carry out appropriate data quality checks and clean each variable
Given how each variable is distributed, please provide some key statistics that you can use you summarise each variable
Provide hypotheses for the distribution of each variable and the data cleaning steps you carried out

Problem 2

Analyse the effect that each variable has on final race time.

As part of your analysis, please investigate the combined impacts of some variables
Please justify the reasoning behind the variables you chose to analyse together
Give a recommendation on ways in which runners can reduce their run time for the Great North Run. Remember to back up your proposal with evidence

Problem 3

Build a linear regression model to predict the race time of a participant X given the data provided. You may also use other types of models if you prefer.

Carry out appropriate data quality checks and clean each variable
Given how each variable is distributed, please provide some key statistics that you can use you summarise each variable
Provide hypotheses for the distribution of each variable and the data cleaning steps you carried out

Problem 4

Assess how well your model performs.

Your submission should be clearly presented – a neat Excel or code base with a PowerPoint to explain your results and final model.

Question 3 | Weighting 20%

Leisure centres in the North East

You have been approached by our client, Active Life, who are looking to open a series of leisure centres in the North East. They need help deciding what sporting activities to offer at their gyms. In addition to the cost of hosting different activities, they are also interested in finding out which sports are the most popular in the North East.

Please help Active Life decide which of the following services to offer.

Step 1
Please research:

Which leisure activities are the most popular
How much Active Life could charge for each activity

Step 2
Given an initial yearly budget of £100,000, and land area of 120m x 70m, calculate the estimated profit that Active Life could make in the first year of business, and the activity plan that would maximise Active Life’s profit.

Use the below table as a cost summary for different activities Active Life could offer
Describe how Active Life could best optimise their space
Explain the potential effect of seasonality on the activities chosen, and how Active Life could best utilise this information
Explain any assumptions you have made throughout

About

We created The Data and Analytics Scholarship, sponsored by the Newcastle DNA Oliver Wyman office as an effort to help and encourage students like you to expand their limits, raise their ambitions and enable further education by facilitating continuity of university studies and provide access to high quality education as well as the opportunity to start developing your professional journey at an impact driven management consulting firm.

Oliver Wyman and NE Youth join forces to bring this competition to you, hoping that you can put your skills to the test and prove that you have what it takes to thrive in the world of data analytics.