Weekly Briefing: Opta Analytics, Facebook’s Hellish Year & Twitter Finally Makes a Profit

After a long break since my last briefing, I’m getting back into the swing of things with a weekly look at what has been making the news. It’s a busy time with the Winter Olympics from PyeongChang in full swing, Premier League broadcast deals almost completed, Twitter actually making a profit for the first time ever(!) and our first #DSLondon event of 2018 successfully taking place on Tuesday (and another in Manchester on Wed 21st Feb).  

Before I get going with this week’s industry reading I wanted to flag one article in particular on Digital Sport that is well worth you spending some time reading (they all are but this one in particular). It’s a brilliant interview by Chris McMullan with the Executive Chairman of QI Group, Vijay Eswaran, on their sponsorship of Man City and growth of football in Asia.

Manchester City and the ‘human’ side of Premier League sponsorship

INDUSTRY ARTICLES/NEWS

First comprehensive report about the European SportsTech ecosystem (sportstechx.com)

As the title suggests it’s a comprehensive 45-page report on the state of sport tech ecosystem in Europe. It’s been compiled by Benjamin Penkert, who has now joined LeaD Accelerator as Head of Consulting, and incorporates over 40 expert interviews. Worth signing up to get hold of a copy.

Tom Brady, Michael Strahan and Gotham Chopra are launching a new sports media startup (Techcrunch.com)

This launch has been getting a fair amount of coverage, including a podcast appearance on Digiday. Probably because it has the name Tom Brady attached to it, so most sports and tech journalists are going to be interested in something he’s investing in. By the sounds of it they’re not there yet as they’re seeking around $3m in investment so it may yet come to nothing. We shall see.

Digital Fans Win Big at the Big Game (blogs.cisco.com)

Some geeky insights into the digital infrastructure that was in place for the Super Bowl. An event where 59% of the people in the stadium access the network at some stage during the game. Maybe that was due to the excitement and sharing content with friends or they were trying to order a drink, we don’t know. But wi-fi within stadiums is definitely getting better.. and about time too!

Machine Learning Is The Future Of Sports Data (silicon.co.uk)

A topic that either fills you with excitement or dread. The rise of machine learning is certainly here and will only become more involved in our lives, whether that’s a good or a bad thing is open to debate. Here’s a good overview of who is doing what within sport now and how it will help in sports performance.

LPGA partners with Opendorse to boost players’ brand potential (sportbusiness.com)

Athletes sharing brand content to create revenue is not new but a deal on this scale, with 200 players signed up through this umbrella deal with the LPGA. How it goes down with fans we shall see and will the players actually make anything meaningful from it? We shall see.

Behind the scenes at the OptaPro Analytics Forum (thesetpieces.com)

An enjoyable sojourn into the world of analytics that starts off with a great quote from The Guardian’s Barry Glendenning talking about ‘expected goals’ who opined that “at some point not too far from now, imbeciles twatting on about xG will be pinpointed as the exact moment football ate itself.” It is an interesting insight into the issues that face football statisticians, especially those underemployed and underpaid within club’s who are unconvinced about their worth. That’s my takeaway from it anyway.

NON-SPORTS ARTICLES

Inside the two years that shook Facebook- and the world (wired.com)

Fantastic long read (a very, very long read) into what has been going on behind the scenes during a time that, as we’ve all noticed from the outside, has seen a number of controversies and struggles from the king of social media platforms. Worth grabbing a sandwich and sitting down to read for 30 mins.

Twitter is ‘on the road to recovery’ — but it’s not going to be easy (businessinsider.com)

Twitter has made a profit… yes, you read that right. The social media struggler has managed to turn things around – mainly through cost cutting – and post a profit in Q4 for 2017. It’s now overtaken Snap in value as it jumped 25% on the stock exchange. Is this going to be Twitter’s time again?

DIGITAL SPORT JOBS

We’ve got a number of new roles in from some amazing companies within sport. Some are on DigitalSport.co but others aren’t. So do get in touch with contact@digitalsport.co to discuss the below and to see what else there might be available.

Head of Talent – Sports Digital Marketing Agency

Technical Account Manager

Head of New Business and Service Sales

Head of Sales, Digital Sponsorship and Advertising

Video Producer – Womens Sports

About author

Daniel McLaren
Daniel McLaren 820 posts

Dan is the Founder & CEO of Digital Sport. Can be found at sports industry events and heard every week on the Digital Sport Insider podcast. @DanielMcLaren

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