The dependence on data has truly boomed over the years with no bar on any industry. The companies have tapped into the real power of data to completely revolutionize their fields over and over again. If you look back in time, oil was the real minefield in the 18th century, in the modern age data is the game-changer for the companies in this digital economy. Data could be the key to bringing about a complete industry transformation. With more and more information being stored related to clients, markets, and business processes, data is the central figure, companies keep coming back to, to gain insights and create sustainable business value.
Though with all the positives there can be negatives too, the data-driven decision-making process is alluring for sure but it can fail at times. With the tech-based approach, the decisions that were taken by humans in the past are being driven by Artificial intelligence now while most of the time it is an efficient process but some decisions do require some human insight even with the data-driven approach.
How is the sports industry integrating data?
There are a number of examples of how the sports industry has center around data. Take the NBA for example, one of the most popular sports in the US, which heavily relies on data analytics for tracking player performance and even while hiring young talent from around the globe. The league has come to depend on data to draw out winning strategies for the franchises and can even help in avoiding player injury. The real power of data was seen when data was used to come up with marketing campaigns that ultimately targeted the audience directly and boosted the direct sales revenues.
With the visible growth through data insights, most of the franchises now have set up a specific analytics department of their own to draw unique insights and build on their advantage. Within the league, the way of working has undergone a significant change, while earlier pattern mapping made predictions and analyzed failures. The analytics department has evolved from that process to more extensive research-based work which can now truly be an asset to any coach if used properly.
Switching up the examples now, in soccer, Valencia has been known to employ data in two particular ways to help the club. One is to draw insights from the data to get a more holistic view of the behavior of fans and then use that to divide them into segments and come up with segment-specific marketing and personalization programs to engage the fans. Practicing the technique, the club has thus come up with 14 different variables based on the fans' reaction and their decision-making process. Valencia then used that to draw fans to the stadium.
The power of data analytics is not a secret anymore, Wimbledon has also boarded the ‘Data Revolution’ train, using a hybrid model wherein they depend on an in-house team of data analysts as well as their third-party data suppliers like IBM. With the real-time data feeds, the fans can experience unmatched analytical insight and engage in a more fruitful manner as the match goes on. The only limit with data and its power is what sports organizations think they can do with it; with a limited view, they limit the potential.
Since not many clubs or franchises would have the budget to depend on, they have shifted to consulting houses and third parties to get immersive insights from data, their strategy might be different but the results stay the same. In one of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conferences, one of the senior members of basketball strategy and analytics for the NBA stated there are a lot of factors that affect data quality but it’s one of the most engrossing aspects of a small change in Data can prompt small changes in the strategy.
The main distinguishing factor for clubs then becomes- data team
Sports data feeds hence could be considered as a strategic asset thus for franchises their success depends on the quality of insights extracted from the data, and factoring that in with added weightage while making business decisions. A data-driven culture is the future of the world as in the information age we produce a mind-boggling amount of data and using that to curate business strategy is the smartest decision than jumping in blind.
Organizations but need to steer clear of the fact that data might hold a lot of weightages but it should never be used as the sole factor, the secret to a successful strategy would be the use of intuition and logical thinking before putting the idea into action.
The use of online sports data in the sports industry would not cease at any rate but with the advent of wearable tech, tagged equipment, and video tracking ability more data points would be created and it would be a bottomless mine with new and interesting insights waiting to be extracted out to produce game-changing and industries revolutionizing results. To get access to the best sports data provider in the market, head to Data Sports Group which has set itself apart in the data market and offers sports XML feeds that could be integrated with the software easily.
