With only a short ride on the tube, we arrived today at the offices of Opta/Stats Perform. We were all well-dressed and looking smart, ready to be introduced to a team of hyper intelligent men and women whose careers are centered around the analysis of sports. No, we’re not talking about the crew that you see on ESPN or Pam Oliver on the sidelines of NFL games, rather a group of computer nerds (meant with the utmost respect) in a tiny office. Though it’s not the most glamorous of sports analysis-related careers, they do a lot of behind the scenes work that make the experience that much better for viewers, betters, and sports organizations as a whole.
What do they do?
Using refined data collected from a complex system of military grade data tracking systems they create data that is applicable to sport analysis. From this, a user of their data is able to understand in-depth stats that optimize and help one understand the game better.
Most football clubs have realized the effectiveness of this product and have adopted stats analysts into their programs. Arsenal, for example, has hired in-house stats analysts to operate solely within the club. This poses a few questions regarding the use of this data technology and its implications for the game:
- Will this give Arsenal a long-term advantage?
- Is there a possibility that Arsenal may manipulate statistical data for economic gain?
- Will this be the trend for other football clubs in the near future?
- Given the expensive nature of this project, will there be a disparity between more wealthy teams and less wealthy teams?
What a wonderful opportunity it was to listen to our speaker Peter. He proved that nerds don’t get as much credit as they should for being so cool and for making sports even more entertaining than what they already are.
Peter gives us an overview of Stats Perform 
The new logo of Stats Perform, formerly Opta 
The group with our two speakers from Stats Perform