Professional Sports Teams Are Experiencing a Data Revolution

There are three critical things: the amount of data is growing exponentially, the majority of data is unstructured and unstructured data can really impact a team, or a player.

IBM iX reports that

0 %

Of professional teams in North America have created a sports science division.

0 %

Of professional teams use some form of analytics for performance evaluation.

0 %

Of pro athletes have a social media presence, where they’re producing daily content.

The average NBA team has 18 different data sources that they use to manage all aspects of player performance and support team management with the decision making process.

The universe of data is growing exponentially,
but the majority of that data is unstructured.

Unstructured data is anything that is in written form, natural language, or images, videos and those kinds of things.

If you look at unstructured data, historically they haven’t been used to manage player performance or used to support the decision making of the team. The majority of the analysis has traditionally been focused on structured data, purely numbers that can be modeled and graphed and be compared against each other.

The challenge is trying to find ways of bringing in the unstructured data, so it can be used by the front office, as part of player evaluation, because you have an awful lot less to work with if you’re just using the structured data.

What do you do with unstructured data?

You want to be able to look at it, you want to be able to interact with it, and that’s where data visualization comes into play.

It’s not about stats anymore – now it’s about how you fit the pieces of the puzzle together to create that unique picture for team management in a way that’s personalized to each player. This provides insights that help support management when they need to make those critical multimillion dollar decisions.

Data visualization offers the promise of a data-driven business model, generating competitive advantage fueled by new business insights.

Tap into the power of unstructured data with MultiTaction

What we’ve created is an intuitive and interactive solution that enables the Raptors’ management to have access to all aspects of player data in real time, in a fashion that they can collaborate with each other, and discuss a potential trade scenario or a draft pick, and really help them make those critical decisions.

Professional Sports Teams Are Experiencing a Data Revolution

IBM iX reports that

What do you do with unstructured data?

Tap into the power of unstructured data with MultiTaction

— IBM IX

MultiTaction featuring IBM Watson and the Toronto Raptors.

Download Case Studies