Imagine you’re a quarterback and you’ve just stepped off the field. Your team has lost. You could look at it as a failure and call it a day – or you could look at it as an opportunity to improve. How? Embedded in your jersey are sensors that have tracked your every move, and the data contained within them will help you make the next game different.
Yes, data is now being collected in sports across the world to help guide teams to victory. Whether you’re a basketball fan based in the United States, or a football fan in Europe, you can expect to see big data increasingly influencing this massive industry. Globally, the professional sports market is worth over $90 billion; this offers a big opportunity for big data. Just as other industries are using data to reach and connect with their audiences, so is athletics to enhance both the player, organization and fan experience.
Data can be shared and used on an extremely granular level, enhancing the experience of professional sports for all parties involved. Instead of relying on intuition, experience and anecdotes, sports participants and enthusiasts can examine data that tells the real story to help with every aspect of the game – from player recruitment to fan engagement.
Baseball was one of the first sports to get the big data treatment. The famous story of the Oakland Athletics, popularized in Michael Lewis’s book Moneyball, showed the power of big data in sports as it depicted the revitalization story of a struggling team using evidence-based recruitment tactics. Data helped the A’s general manager Billy Beane pick his talent based on the numbers, not the gut – and to great success. Today, big data-based recruitment is picking up speed, with Irish startup Profile 90 introducing a multifaceted talent identification platform that evaluates physical, mental and social factors to help teams make smart recruitment decisions.
Big data is more of a long game in some contexts, setting the stage for the future rather than the present. In the ultra-competitive Olympics, where training is a full-time job, athletes are looking for any edge they can get along the way. Coaches are beginning to collect training data on young athletes, hoping to gain some insight into what makes top athletes succeed in the Olympics, and which factors play the biggest role.
