Innovations Shaping Sports Analytics

In 2022, the NFL paid nearly $800 MILLION to injured players. But in 2024, they used AI to crunch 6.4 million data points—per game. And it’s slashing injuries by 29%. Here’s how it’s saving careers (and championships): As a former NFL agent and Wall Street vet, I've seen data transform sports. The physical toll is brutal, but the NFL's latest innovation changes everything. They're using AI to predict injuries before they happen. But here's what makes this revolutionary: The system processes 8TB of video weekly through computer vision. ML models analyze every tackle, cut, and sprint in real-time. AI runs 4.3M simulations per game to spot injury risks. It's trained on 10,000+ simulated seasons. The tech behind it? Mind-blowing: Players wear Zebra Tech sensors tracking: • Location in real-time • Speed variations • Impact forces • Distance covered • Acceleration patterns But the magic happens in the cloud: AWS processes data within 12 seconds. The system builds a "Digital Athlete" - your virtual twin. It uses 3D pose estimation for biomechanical analysis. This predicts injuries with unprecedented accuracy. Here's where it gets fascinating: Mouthguards capture data at 20,000 Hz, measuring: • Force of collision • Direction of impact • Velocity at contact When risks exceed thresholds, something remarkable happens: Teams get instant tablet alerts. These aren't generic warnings. Each alert considers: • Player's injury history • Position benchmarks • Current game demands The impact? Staggering: The Chiefs now average 3.2 proactive subs per game based on AI. These aren't random switches. They're data-driven decisions revolutionizing player management. And here's the biggest breakthrough: The system flags players hitting: • 85% of position-specific speeds • 90th percentile contact forces • 15+ high-intensity impacts But there's an irony in all this: While the NFL develops this amazing tech, they keep pushing for an 18-game season. They're using AI to protect players while adding more wear and tear. It's like installing airbags while removing seatbelts. From my NFL experience, I know what's at stake. This isn't just about preventing injuries. It's about extending careers and protecting legacies. Keeping our favorite players on the field longer. Football's future isn't just player safety. AI drives smarter decisions in: • Player management • Performance data • Injury prevention This tech changes how we analyze the game.

My view on baseball for the past 58 years - boorrrriiinnnggg. Then, while on vacation with friends recently, my buddy Jim got me to watch the Datacast broadcast. Seven windows of real-time data analytics? - yes, please! I had never even heard of this before, but for the League Championship Series and the World Series, MLB ran a simulcast version with some absolutely incredible real time data analyses, visualizations, and predictive analytics. I did some additional research on the techniques and technologies that they used for this version, and I was completely mesmerized watching this level of data firepower applied in a popular broadcast. The whole system is built on Google Cloud infrastructure. Here are some of the main components: 🔸 3D Pose Tracking - Tracks 18 points on each player's body - Captures 30 images per sensor per second - Processes 540 images per player per second4 - Enables creation of immersive 3D game views similar to video games 🔸 Data Processing Infrastructure - Anthos for on-premises Kubernetes processing at ballparks - BigQuery for real-time query results - Bigtable for managing large workloads - Cloud SQL Postgres for rapid data replication 🔸 AI Modeling and Analysis - Processes ≈15 million data points per game - Custom neural networks for pitch classification - Predictive modeling for catch probability - Base stealing success rate analysis - Real-time ball and strike analysis Needless to say, I am now a big baseball fan - at least this version of baseball. 😁 Did anyone else catch these telecasts? What did you think? #baseball #datacast #sportsanalytics #datavisualization #ai

Technology has been a focal point in the NBA for years now especially with NBA Launchpad program. Launchpad is the league’s initiative to source, evaluate, and pilot emerging technologies that advance the NBA’s top basketball and business priorities. Since 2022, the NBA has helped over 15 sports tech companies including: 2024 Cohort ∙ Dimension Studio: A real-time 3D production studio and platform for virtual worlds, virtual humans and virtual sport ∙ Plantiga: Advanced in-shoe sensors with AI insights that track step-by-step load, performance and asymmetries during training and competition. ∙ Reboot Motion: A movement analysis platform helping large organizations excel in biomechanics at scale ∙ TextQL: An AI-native data intelligence platform that helps non-technical users self serve insights in real time for data driven decisions ∙ Tonsser: A digital product and community enabling youth athletes to track their performances, improve their skills, compare and compete against peers, and access opportunities 2023 Cohort ∙ Action Audio & Visual: Transforms spatial data into information-rich 3D sound experiences, helping blind/low vision audiences to follow sport in real time ∙ EDGE Sound Research: Embodied sound technology that leverages standard audio inputs to produce audible, haptic and tactile sensation directly to a fan within an arena or at home for sports, music, and gaming ∙ nVenue: Sports betting platform that uses machine learning and AI to generate game-relevant probabilities and micro-bets for fans to engage with in real-time ∙ SkillCorner: Uses computer vision and machine learning to generate player tracking data from existing video feeds ∙ Springbok Analytics: AI-based technology that transforms MRI data into a 3D digital twin ∙ Supersapiens: Analyzes glucose data to inform athletes how nutrition impacts their well-being, sleep, and athletic performance ∙ Tagboard: Audience experience platform designed to help production teams create the most engaging content in the world with a fraction of the resources required by traditional graphics systems 2022 Cohort ∙ Betterguards Technology: Adaptive ankle protection system that provides advanced freedom of motion for athletes while actively preventing injuries ∙ Breathwrk Inc.: Health and performance app that provides science-backed breathing exercises, helping athletes wake up, calm down, increase stamina and fall asleep ∙ Nextiles: Materials science company that quantifies human movement by merging sewing technologies with flexible electronics ∙ Rezzil: VR-based solution for cognitive training, rehabilitation, and game analysis ∙ Uplift Labs: AI-powered technology that delivers real-time movement tracking and 3D analysis to enhance health and performance #sportstech #sportsbusiness #linkedinsports

Robots won't be playing pro sports (at least not for a few more years!) but, honestly, what is our thumbnail designer supposed to do? Today's episode *is* all about how A.I. is transforming baseball ⚾️ (with lessons for all industries) BASEBALL'S DATA REVOLUTION • Baseball's analytical journey evolved from the "Moneyball" era of the early 2000s to today's A.I.-powered decision making. • Every Major League Baseball (MLB) team now employs data scientists, treating analytics as a competitive necessity. • MLB's Statcast system generates 7 terabytes of data per game, tracking everything from pitch spin rates to fielder movements. • Machine learning (MLB ML?? 😂) algorithms excel at finding patterns in this mountain of information that humans would miss. SCOUTING & PLAYER DEVELOPMENT • Modern scouting uses ML models to analyze vast arrays of player data beyond traditional stats. • Models analyze nuanced metrics like exit velocity, launch angle, and spin rates to make more accurate performance projections. • Teams can identify undervalued players by recognizing patterns that traditional scouting might miss. • Player development has become personalized through A.I. systems that analyze individual strengths and weaknesses. • A.I. can flag mechanical issues in swings or pitching motions before they become major problems. GAME STRATEGY • Managers now use predictive analytics to inform game decisions, from pitching changes to defensive positioning. • A.I. models simulate countless scenarios to recommend optimal strategies for specific matchups. • Defensive shifts evolved through deep learning analysis of where every ball lands. • Teams blend human intuition with machine predictions, using technology as a "high-tech co-pilot". • Players and coaches regularly consult iPads mid-game to study the latest analytics. FAN EXPERIENCE • A.I. now enriches broadcasts with real-time "win probability" graphs and advanced metrics like "catch probability". • Advanced statistics help fans gain deeper appreciation of player skills and game dynamics. • MLB's Automated Ball-Strike system ("robo-umpire") uses AI and vision technology to ensure consistent, fair calls. LESSONS FOR EVERY BUSINESS • If baseball—deeply rooted in tradition—can embrace A.I., any industry can be transformed by a data-driven approach. • Organizations that blend domain expertise with A.I. insights outperform competitors. • Early adopters gain significant advantages until others catch up. • A.I. augments human strategic decision-making rather than fully replacing it (like the robots... this will be true for at least a few more years!). • Success comes from experimenting with data, trusting analytics, and maintaining an open mind to change. You can hear more on the above in the most recent episode (#874) of the "Super Data Science Podcast with Jon Krohn" on any podcasting platform and YouTube. Link in comments ⬇️ #superdatascience #ai #aiinsports #machinelearning #baseball #sports

Could the future of Moneyball be buried inside a video game? Because EA Sports isn't just making Madden and FIFA repeats. They're building a system that studies real athletes... then predicts what they'll do next. A few months ago, EA bought TRACAB, a technology that tracks every player, every ref, every touch in real time. They also built HyperMotionV, a system trained on real in-game footage without motion capture suits. But this isn't just about creating realistic games. It's about predicting what happens next in real life. Picture this: NFL coaches testing playbooks before kickoff. NBA front offices simulating lineups mid-game. What used to take hours of film study now runs in seconds. EA pulled in over $5 billion last year from services like Ultimate Team, revenue can fuel their simulation engine running billions of what-if scenarios 24/7. Once this tech reaches teams, the edge won't come from watching more film or hiring smarter scouts. It'll come from whoever owns the simulation and can see patterns before anyone else. Because if EA's engine can predict what's likely to happen... then the game on the field might just be one version of something their AI already saw. So the question is: Would you let a robot overlord run your favorite team? #SportsAnalytics #EASports #SportsTech #AI #SportsBusiness

This isn’t just an AI demo. It’s live. And it's what the future of every customer interaction could look like. Every year, the Masters feels like a tradition frozen in time. But behind the scenes, it's a glimpse of the future. This year, over 20,000 golf shots at Augusta National are captured, analyzed, and narrated by AI, within minutes. Not just stat lines, but real insights, like: 🟢 “Shots from this location have an 82% chance of birdie.” 🟠 “Hole 14 is playing the toughest today, with 25% bogeys.” 🔮 “No. 9 is projected to be the third most difficult hole today.” That’s Hole Insights 2.0, built on watsonx and tuned on 180,000+ historical shots and expert input, including past Masters caddies. AI narration returns in English and Spanish, now also available through the Masters app on Apple Vision Pro, complete with 3D course views and multi-stream live play. It’s easy to dismiss this as "just sports tech." But I see something bigger here. This is what happens when AI is tuned, grounded, and embedded into a real-world experience: - Real-time context - Predictive intelligence - Multimodal delivery (text, voice, AR) - Personalization at scale For any business leader thinking about AI transformation: don’t just look at dashboards and copilots. Look at how we partnered with the Masters to turn data into decisions, and decisions into experiences. AI is not a plug-in. Allows full reinvention.

As an industry, #sports has been somewhat insulated from the waves of disruption that #AI is unleashing across the economy. The core product—real people competing in real time—is irreplaceable. That’s why, until recently, most AI applications have been confined to the periphery: athlete performance, turf management, fan engagement.   But that’s changing. As The Athletic reports, AI is beginning to reshape one of the most human dimensions of sport: #coaching. And it’s not happening in some experimental niche—it’s happening in the National Football League (NFL), a league that’s fiercely protective of how it operates.   It’s a major signal. American football is arguably the most complex of all major team sports, with thousands of formations, intricate rules, and constantly shifting personnel. And yet, AI has now evolved to the point where it can identify defensive coverages, detect tendencies, and even propose play calls.   Still, it would be a *massive* overreach to suggest this will replace coaches outright. As a former athlete, I can’t overstate the importance of human connection, personal mentorship, and the occasional raw discipline from someone you admire. But those who reject AI instead of embracing its ability to condense a plethora of data inputs into forecasts and actionable adjustments will be doing themselves a disservice.   The most successful leaders in the next era of tech-enabled coaching will bridge the gap between “new school” and “old school” to maximize strategy and performance; creating more free time for mission critical tasks, while also leaning further into the motivational side of coaching – something machines are nowhere near able to do.   In any moment of disruption, the best thing we can do is experiment intentionally. There's a theory that psychologists call cognitive dissonance reduction—our natural tendency to downplay or reject what feels unfamiliar or threatening. It’s a mindset we are all predisposed to, but one we must continually challenge.   As Las Vegas Raiders coach Pete Carroll put it: “If you’re not curious, you’re not growing.”

Here’s how IBM predicts who is likely to win one of the most highly attended sporting events in the world 👀🎾 I love seeing AI positively impact the fan experience, so I was excited about IBM’s collaboration with the USTA as their digital innovation partner. So how do they identify the player most likely to win a match during  the US Open, one of the largest tennis tournaments in the world? The process begins like every successful AI project - with structured and unstructured data from various sources: 🎾 Player data on 128 men and 128 women, including age, height, weight, ranking, and recent performance. Match data with over 7 million points, like serve direction, return shot type, rally count, and ball position. Media data from over 100 million articles to capture language and sentiment. IBM then, with the help of IBM watsonx, uses data analytics and AI to derive player performance insights by building: 🎾 An AI-powered ranking system (Power Index) that analyzes factors like win-loss ratio, win margin, rank differential, court surface, injury status, and tournament performance to determine player momentum and match insights, including an AI-powered fact sheets that distill millions of data points into meaningful insights, such as which players have the most momentum. I love working in data and AI because we see its positive impact daily, whether we’re deriving insights for a CxO, a tennis fan deciding which match to watch, or supporting editorial teams. Projects like this show how explainable AI can make our favorite things more fun. Watch the video and read here https://ibm.biz/BdKkMy to learn more about IBM’s partnership with the USTA and AI-powered features like Match Reports, AI Commentary, and Likelihood to Win. #IBMPartner #USOpen #Tennis #Data #watsonx #genAI I partnered with #IBM to bring you this post. Support the free content I create by sharing this post with your favorite tennis fan!

AWS collaborated with the PGATour on prototyping a generative AI virtual assistant that allows fans to interact conversationally and access a wealth of data about players, tournaments, stats, and more - all powered by Amazon Bedrock. This technology opens up new avenues for ultra-engaging fan experiences in sports. But the possibilities extend far beyond - with the right design and testing, organizations across industries can implement AI assistants that contextualize their structured data, documents, media and more to deliver seamless user interactions. I'm incredibly excited about the transformative potential of generative AI to revolutionize how we access and leverage data & content. 🏌️⛳ https://lnkd.in/gPA-KvYd