In the ‘good old days’, running a sports team was more about tradition and intuition than anything else. Grizzled old coaches with years of experience under their belts just did what they felt was right.
In the ‘good old days’, running a sports team was more about tradition and intuition than anything else. Grizzled old coaches with years of experience under their belts just did what they felt was right. Behind the scenes, management and marketers flew by the seats of their pants. Things are different these days. Today, pro sports is driven by sports data intelligence.
Sports data intelligence began as an offshoot of the broader data intelligence concept. It is now an entity unto itself. Big data is combined with state-of-the-art analytics to make teams better – both on the field and off. As a result, pro sports is a money making machine all across the globe.
Data Intelligence on the Field
On the field, or in the arena if you will, sports data intelligence is leveraged to boost athlete performance. Major League Baseball (MLB) was one of the first major sports leagues to embrace data and analytics. Some say that MLB set the standard for how data is gathered, analyzed, and leveraged on the field of play.
General managers like Theo Epstein embraced data and analytics over tradition and intuition to build championship ball clubs capable of winning it all – and then repeating their successes. Data and analytics proved to be such a hit with MLB that other major sports leagues started taking a look.
Sports data intelligence is now an integral aspect of soccer throughout Europe and North America. Management relies on data to make off-field decisions while coaches and their assistants rely on data to inform their decisions on gameday. Soccer clubs are notorious for gathering data on every aspect of the game, down to the number of successful passes and dribbles.
Data powers the NFL, NBA, NHL, and all sorts of minor leagues in nearly every sport. These days, it’s not a matter of if a team or league invests in sports data intelligence. It is simply a matter of the extent of their investments.
Data Intelligence Off the Field
Sports data intelligence plays another role that is largely hidden from the fans. Off the field and in the back office, data is gathered by the virtual truck load. It is analyzed and transformed into actionable insights by way of advanced data intelligence platforms built by companies like KORE.
KORE’s data intelligence solutions are utilized to:
- Improve Fan Engagement – Advanced data analytics can help teams gain invaluable insights into fan preferences and behaviors. With the right data, teams can better engage with fans by knowing in advance what they want and expect.
- Manage Sponsorships – Sports data intelligence has proven itself invaluable to managing sponsorships. The right data is also useful in the pursuit of new sponsorships. And of course, things like contract management and deliverables or more easily controlled.
- Creating Experiences – Sports data intelligence is even being used to create new and better experiences for fans before, during, and after events. Fan interaction is being integrated across multiple channels and with the use of some of the latest and greatest technologies.
KORE Software is a global leader in sports data intelligence worldwide. Their software solutions are well worth looking at for any team, league, or venue looking to make better use of data and analytics. Contact them to learn more.
In the meantime, there is no doubt that data drives pro sports in the modern era. Tradition is a wonderful thing. Intuition has its place. But at the end of the day, sports data intelligence leverages the science of data and analytics to make teams better both on the field and off.