Every sports fan loves a stat, and Sportonomics uses them in a clever and creative way to explain why listening to David Bowie can mean the difference between winning and losing, and how wearing red can improve your chances of sporting success. Bringing the facts to life with charts and graphics, Sportonomics explores the technical and the serious, the fun and the fanciful to offer an alternative take on commonly accepted sporting knowledge. So, from considering the true cost to fans of football's divers to analysing how fast humans might possibly run the 100 metres, the book is packed with astute observations and fascinating theories that will make sports fans stand up

Gavin Newsham is an award-winning writer whose work regularly appears in the Observer Sport Monthly and the Sunday Times. His previous books include Once in a Lifetime, the story of the New York Cosmos and celebrated biographies of golfer John Daly (winner of NSC Best New Writer in 2004), The Ofiicial Treasures of Muhammad Ali and the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Fact File.