ANALYTICS - SHAPING THE SPORTS INDUSTRY › sites › default › files › ... · ANALYTICS -...

WHITEPAPER JAnuARy 2016

ANALYTICS - SHAPING THE SPORTS INDUSTRY

www.hcltech.com

AuthOrs:

Atin Agarwal, Sajal MehrotraHCL Gaming, Entertainment & Sports Practice

ANALYTICS - SHAPInG THE SPORTS InDuSTRy

ANALYTICS – SHAPING THE SPORTS INDUSTRY | JANUARY 2016

© 2016, HCL TECHnOLOGIES. REPRODuCTIOn PROHIBITED. THIS DOCuMEnT IS PROTECTED unDER COPyRIGHT By THE AuTHOR, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3

INTRODUCTION – LIFE BEFORE ANALYTICS 3

SPORTS – A GAME CHANGER FOR MANY; A GAME FOR OTHERS 3

ANALYTICS - WHY THE SUDDEN BUZZ? 4

SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYSIS 6

BUSINESS ANALYSIS 8

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS 9

PLAYER FITNESS AND TEAM PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS 9

HCL IN SPORTS ANALYTICS 10

REFERENCES 13

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 13

ABOUT HCL 14



EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThis whitepaper aims at showing the impact Analytics has on the Sports Industry and how the correct implementation of analytics can reap immediate benefits for the industry.

The sports industry is now being known as the Sports Entertainment Industry where apart from the onfield entertainment and drama, the business side has taken a long hop. Customer satisfaction and digitalization have also become buzz words.

In today’s sporting world successful teams use analytics largely for two purposes. The first is to connect with their fans and increase their fan base through various platforms. The other use is to enhance their performance through opposition analysis or their own player monitoring.

Social Media Analytics, along with its impact on the business and performance analytics and on the team, are the key aspects in this industry.

In an attempt to build intimate relationships with the fans, the teams are implementing internet-based tools to analyse the sentiment of fans and to be sure what the fans are demanding. Digital promotional activities are also on the rise since the last 2-3 years as it allows the teams and leagues to be outrageous and provide exclusivity.

Sports management has also unlocked the successful formula of variable and dynamic ticket pricing through implementation of analytics. Now they clearly know what the matches are where fans are willing to pay more and thus the tickets are priced in the same way.

All this and much more has helped the teams in monetizing on their popularity and build onto their existing fan base.

INTRODUCTION – LIFE BEFORE ANALYTICSLong before scorecard and applications were born, there was William Howard “Bill” Frindall, an English scorer and Statistician. Bill had been given the nickname of ‘Bearded Wonder’ because he had an uncanny capability to research on the most bizarre and unique cricketing facts and moments while also maintaining the scoring sheet for all the prestigious tournaments and other organized cricket matches.

Bill was quoted as saying “My whole time was spent in the library and newspaper hubs to fish out the details. Then came the internet and eased my life.”

Bill’s job was considered unique and tiresome by many as they felt fishing out million data points on sports every day was a real cumbersome and boring task. Then came the storm of application of analytics in sports and charmed the industry and its billions of followers with the capabilities it brought with it.

SPORTS – A GAME CHANGER FOR MANY; A GAME FOR OTHERSToday, the sports and the entertainment industries go hand-in-hand. Sports were earlier



considered as a form of physical exercise to keep the body fit and mind sharp. Then came the age where recreational sports took over and sports were heavily promoted to cultivate sportsman spirit to distress and enjoy. But today the fast pace at which life is running sports has become a medium of entertainment.

Across the world, we are witnessing a close convergence between the sports and entertainment industries, as both sectors continue to rise to the challenges of new digital technologies which shape the way people spend their leisure time.

Statics have proved that Association Football is the most followed and played sport worldwide, followed by Basketball. The popularity score has been derived statistically through analysis of attendance in the respective sports, the television viewership and internal search hits. Appropriate weightage has been given to each parameter while calculating the mean.

The Soccer World Cup final was watched by an estimated 600 million people and the annual Champions League final by more than 300 million. It has been observed that more than 200 countries take part in the world cup qualifying. Soccer has 5 of the world’s 10 highest attended leagues. Soccer is closely followed by Basketball in terms of popularity and viewership.

NBA finals are broadcasted across over 200 countries, with over 10 countries being represented on the NBA rosters covering over 200 national basketball federations. Basketball is also an upcoming sports in many of the Asian countries and interest keeps on growing by each passing year.

ANALYTICS - WHY THE SUDDEN BUZZ?The buzz around Big Data and Analytics seems to be growing exponentially. The concept of Big Data and Analytics appears to have captured the imagination of practically everyone across all industry verticals and horizontals. It becomes interesting to decipher and analyse why data and analytics are under the spotlight and the implications they have on the business.

The main reason is the presence of large volumes of unprocessed data. A look at the past decade shows clearly that we have a deluge of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data which was clearly available but was either overlooked or under processed.

0 500 1000 1500 2000

FootballBasketball

TennisCricket

BaseballRubgy

Formula 1Golf

AthleticsIce Hockey

BoxingVolleyball

BadmingtonSnookerCycling

Score

Popularity Score

Spor

t



This was until Jim Goodnight brilliantly came up with the idea of setting up Statistical Analysis System (SAS). SAS began with a small customer base of universities doing agricultural research, drug companies analysing trials, and insurance companies computing mortality estimates. The major breakthrough came around 1990 when all the major banks realized they could use all the data they had been collecting on customers to know whom to lend money to. Next came the investment banks, which adopted analytics to gain an edge in trading. Then came the data explosion called the Internet with its billions of clicks each day. Every click is stored on a server somewhere, waiting to be analysed. This all lead to Jim Goodnight being known as the ‘Godfather of Analytics’.

With the growing stress on customer satisfaction and the ever increasing role of social media, all major businesses are looking at customer data to gain insights into cross-selling and up-selling.

In today’s world, data is being shipped in real-time to locations, where it is worked upon. By using analytics, the data is being turned into exceptionally insightful intelligence which is effectively being utilized by enterprises in ways that are making them leap over competition.

A research conducted by MIT reflects that organizations using data and analytics show 5-6% higher increase in productivity rates and profitability than those who are yet to try their tryst with Big Data.

Some points confirming the big leap analytics has taken across various business divisions are:

• President Obama hired over 50 analytics experts and data scientists to shape a campaign that would induce voters to select him

• 41+ million data points were analysed at Wimbledon to identify playing patterns and styles to predict, before each match, what players need to do to win

• McLaren engineers are analysing real-time telemetry data sent by 160 sensors on their Formula 1 cars to reach decisions that help their teams stay at the rewarding pole position

• Analytics has the potential to predict street crime, traffic jams, and major footfall at retail checkouts

All the major IT giants across the world are sweating it out to gain expertise in the field of analytics. HCL has taken a lead and is in the process of creating a $1 billion Business Analytics Segment.



HCL Tech to create $1 billion Business Analytics Segment

India’s fourth largest software exporter, HCL Technologies is in the process of creating a $1 billion business analytics segment that will focus on marketing analytics, operations research, and fraud analytics.

In fact, the firm recently opened up a Co-Innovation Lab in Singapore along with global pharmaceutical major Eli Lilly for establishing a collaborative framework for incubating innovative ideas and concepts using cloud computing, automation, business analytics, and enterprise mobility.

HCL has one of the fastest growing analytic practices in the industry due to the unique ability to provide end-to-end solutions ranging from data integration to advanced analytics models at scale for large enterprises. HCL uses a proven, repeatable approach where the focus is on business interaction and delivering incremental business results.

What Does Analytics Bring to the Sports Industry?

Roger Neilson has widely been regarded by many as the father of analytics in the sports industry. He was an innovator and always looked to improvise more by using unconventional methods. In the early 2000s he laid the seeds of data analysis by using videotapes to analyse teams and players. With the advancement in the field he adapted various other analytics tools as well.

We can classify the impact of analytics on sports in the following key fields:

• Social Media Analysis

• Business Analysis

• Competitor Analysis

• Player Fitness Analysis

• Team Performance Analysis

SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYSISSocial media’s impact on sports, and how users consume sports, has grown exponentially. Fans no longer need to wait for the morning newspaper for the latest updates. Trades and signings are disseminated to the masses as soon as they happen. Social media has brought about an instant access to the news and updates for the fans along with the reaction worldwide and opinions of people around the world.

On deep diving into statistics it was found that in 2014 26% of fans in USA used social media platforms for their favourite sports, which is a considerable rise from 15% two years back. Every 8 out of 10 fans are using Twitter or Facebook to follow the updates regarding their favourite teams and sports. Taking the example of Superbowl, it was observed this year that from start to 30 minutes after it ended, there were 43.4 million tweets about the game. 65 million people communicated about the game on Facebook, with 265 million posts.



Many teams are dedicating more time and resources to operate their social media presence and to connect with stakeholders. Additionally, nearly all sports teams’ websites now integrate links to their respective pages for Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs. This makes sense because brands rely heavily on fan following, so it becomes essential to understand what they want. These digital media outlets provide efficient means for sports organizations to facilitate fan interaction and commentary of their brand due to low entry costs and large fan populations present.

Some facts that showcase the importance of social media are:

• Management team of about 62% sports clubs have a dedicated social media team

• 57% of venues have a defined social media strategy versus 43% who do not have a defined social media strategy

• A survey of social media committees of sports teams has revealed that 8% of them classify the venue’s use of social media as expert, 47% as proficient, 34% as still learning, 8% as behind the curve, and 2% as not using it at all.

• 52% venues experienced a revenue increase with a defined social media strategy versus 19% that reported revenue increase without a defined social media strategy

The teams are leveraging social media to provide networking platforms and also use blogs and other social media tools to engage customers. Implementation of internet-based promotional tools is on the rise since the last 2-3 years as it allows the teams and leagues to be outrageous and provide exclusivity. Moreover, mobile technology provides an excellent medium for brands to constantly stay connected with consumers and develop ‘intimate relationships’ with them.

HCL offers Social Media Solutions for their Connected Customer

Some key Social Media Analysis Solutions which differentiate HCL from the others are:

Socialytics

Socialytics is a Social Analytics and CRM tool from HCL, which helps companies identify their social media competiveness and perform social media monitoring including user sentiment analysis. The tool also helps the marketing team to connect with end consumers, serve them better, and personalize products, advertisements, content, and promotions.

Predictive Analytics

HCL’s predictive analytics services help customers to cater to and understand a socially active and connected consumer by providing the right insights. Some of the services include consumer performance analysis, churn, and campaign effectiveness. HCL also offers social CRM services for audience development and community intelligence, which ultimately provides a better understanding of consumer preferences and behaviour, and help respond to issues in a better way.



BUSINESS ANALYSISSports management teams have also cracked the formula that analytics can not only improve the on field performances but also help them off the field by giving their business a much needed boost.

The main applications of analytics from the business point of view in sports are:

• Analytics for ticket pricing

• Fan analytics - Fan engagement

• Sentiment analysis

Ticket pricing is one area where sports teams’ management can improve their revenues by applying analytics. One of the most common approaches in analytical ticket pricing is Variable Pricing. It is a practice of charging different prices for the same seat depending upon the game. These prices are decided before the start of the tournament and they remain static throughout the tournament.

The second and most important approach in ticket pricing analytics is dynamic ticket pricing. In this approach, prices vary as the tournament proceeds based on the factors such as team performance, rankings, day of the week, position of the match, and stage of the tournament (group match, semi-final or final match etc.). Put simply, with dynamic ticket pricing, tickets that are in high demand will be sold for more.

Predictive Modelling and Optimization Techniques can take in numerous variables around the fixed and variables costs, team performance, royalties, and other income streams. It can target contribution, and an estimate of the fans’ ability to pay to generate a stream of ticket prices that can be deployed through the dynamic pricing mechanism. This will effectively leverage the interest and enthusiasm in the team and will allow for the expected ebb and flow as well.

Fan Analytics including Engagement and Sentiment Analysis helps the team in connecting with the loyal fan base. Loyal customers are the ones who stick with the franchise even when the going is tough. So authorities would do whatever they can to retain them by offering promotions or by treating them specially. The teams are now engaging their fans by providing personalized experiences in the form of personalized web content by evaluating fans past history. For true fans, the season lasts 24x7x365. Today’s best run teams are using fan insights to power a class of personalized, immersive experiences delivered on fans’ mobile devices, online, and in the stadium to bring fans closer to the action. Analytics is the backbone in the world of personalization. Sentiment analysis is another important concept to enhance fan connect. The idea behind it is to analyse the tone of the tweets pertaining to the team. Post sentiment analysis, teams perform cluster analysis to segment the fans to better understand the types of relationships that fans have with their teams.



COMPETITOR ANALYSISCompetitor analysis, popularly coined as Intelligent Analysis, is nothing new in the field of sports. The management has been trying to decode the opponent for decades to get a cutting edge. With the evolution of analytics, the sheets of paper have been replaced by tools which do the number crunching and give the desired results within no time.

In the world of football, the current Bayern Munich Manager “Pep Guardiola” is said to be a man obsessed with analytics, especially competitor analysis. “I look at the footage of our opponents and then try to work out how to demolish them,” Guardiola was quoted as saying. A close look at his methods show that competitor analysis is done in three stages (Tactical Analysis, Performance Analysis, and Key Weakness Factorization). Multiple applications are present in the market to churn the factors and give quick turnaround time.

The figures below depict how the coaches of tennis greats Roger Federer and Andy Murray analyse the competitor’s performance before each match.

Federer

Most important Least important Outright successImportant

murray

PLAYER FITNESS AND TEAM PERFORMANCE ANALYSISThe rigorous routine wear out the sportsperson and maintaining their fitness levels becomes a big challenge. This challenge has been answered by analytics.

Nutrition, fitness, and training are the primary factors contributing to a player’s performance. Now add technology to that. Vast amount of data is generated every time a ball is kicked or putted, or when a Formula 1 race car flashes in front of a thrilled crowd. All this falls in the category of unstructured data which in turn requires



efficient data management solutions. This data, when churned using powerful Big Data tools, delivers useful statistics and insights — right from individual performance to a team’s ability to function and hopefully win.

Today’s scenario has every action of a player monitored on and off the field including the sleeping pattern, exercises, and the food timings along with their nutritional value. Analytics can also guide the coaches regarding how much the player is fit or injury-prone due to stress and other contributing factors. Information can also be provided on the best practices and conditions for their rehab.

Analytics can also clearly measure the past performance of players under similar conditions and whether the player would gel well in the current system. It can also fish out data on the best combination of the team from the available options and the chances of success.

On the field, the movements are tracked and monitored to calculate the distance covered by the player, the key contributions by the player, the positive and negatives on the day, and also energy utilization by the player.

Technology can never take place of talent, training, fitness, teamwork and all things that make sport a joy to play and watch, but it can certainly put some solid science and give the teams and players the winning edge.

HCL - The Digital Transformation Partner for Manchester United

Manchester United has announced HCL as their Digital Transformation Partner. HCL will work towards changing the way fans experience and interact with Manchester United. HCL will also create a state-of-the-art United Xperience Lab to be housed within the iconic Old Trafford stadium.

Analytics has made a great impact in this deal as Manchester United realized through extensive predictive analysis that they lacked Fan Engagement at the stadium and on the digital platform and hence steps needed to be taken to improve monetization of their consumer engagement. Thus, Manchester United chose the right partner in HCL to transform the experience of the Club’s 659 million global followers.

HCL IN SPORTS ANALYTICSRealizing the expansion and the shift in the sports industry towards a more business and IT-oriented approach, HCL established a dedicated team to cater to the requirements with a heavy focus on the sports analytics section to empower the customers.

HCL has a deep presence in the sports industry under multiple sections. HCL not only makes sports events more interactive through pre and post-game fan experience, but is also involved in the leagues and arenas through players, sponsors and multi-channel engagements. HCL is also undertaking Talent 360-degree Management for a major partner and partnering with various major broadcasting and live streaming giants. Taking the sports section to the next level, HCL was also one of the first IT company to venture into the sphere of interactive games and sports betting.



HCL’s Business Analytics Services (BAS) helps clients from the sports management by delivering solutions that transform, innovate, and lower costs with shared services. As a leading SAP HANA solution provider, HCL also helps manage the diverse data needs of the clients across the value chain.

HCL’s vast analytics experience allows it to deliver comprehensive solutions for business optimization. HCL ensures that its sports clients have the ability to access key information rapidly to make real-time decisions. Through the integration of multiple-source data on a large scale platform, HCL helps lower the client’s total cost of data and business intelligence IT assets, while increasing their operational efficiency.

Some of HCL’s success stories in the field of sports analytics are:

Next Gen App for In-arena User Experience

HCL helped develop one of the world’s most famous arenas by enhancing In-arena Experience through an app that helps fans watch, cheer, play, and share content real-time. HCL also implemented other features such as ticketless entry, live stats, in-arena friend connect, mCommerce, quick replays, social sharing, etc.

Communication and Media Centre setup

HCL was the key innovator behind the third largest multi-sport event in the world. HCL partnered with one of the largest telecom providers to provide the complete operations and management of communication infrastructure that connected NOC, DR, 14 Games Venues, 6 Non competition venues, 16 Training venues, and 5 beauty spots.



Dynamic Ticket and Booking Management

HCL was involved in managing the ticketing structure for one of the leading sports entities by developing a tablet application for booking tickets online, complete with seat map and integration with social media to track friends attending the same event. HCL also implemented the logic to decide the price of the tickets dynamically for different matches by calculating the demand and the importance of the events.

Community Digital Venture

HCL partnered with the third largest franchise in the world of football to help the client achieve their transformation objectives. HCL supported the client on their social engagement by providing insights and heat maps, etc. HCL ran Customer Insight Solution Campaigns and provided marketing solutions for them. HCL also implemented centralized DAM services for the client along with optimizing the web experience of their fans.

HCL’s key service offerings in the field of sports analytics include:

Big Data Analytics – HCL helps the teams in transforming their business through the discovery, exploration, and implementation of active business insight

Predictive Maintenance Analytics – HCL helps clients in maximizing the value of enterprise assets and improve business performance by predicting problems before they occur

Digital Process Analytics – HCL’s digital expertize can help the sports management teams drive down their costs while improving quality for their processes. HCL also provides additional benefits to the clients by analysing and predicting their future performance.

Social Analytics – HCL helps the teams and leagues gain a 360-degree understanding of the network of consumer relationships and fan sentiment

Supply Chain Analytics – Merchandizing and monetizing is a key aspect of sports revenue. HCL helps the teams understand the key drivers affecting their supply chain and the parameters that can be used to optimize it.



Atin Agarwal

Atin currently leads Solutions for HCL’s Gaming, Entertainment and Sports practice and has MBA from National University of Singapore along with 13 Years of Professional Experience in IT Industry. He has been instrumental in driving innovative solutions and digital transformation for Topline growth and bottom-line optimization for HCL’s top Gaming, Sports and Theme Park clients.

Sajal Mehrotra

Sajal currently is part of the Solutions team for HCL’s Gaming, Entertainment and Sports practice and has MBA from Great Lakes Institute of Management Chennai along with 4 Years of Professional Experience in IT Industry. He has been actively involved in creating mobility solutions and customer analytics for the top clients in the Gaming, Entertainment & Sports practice.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

REFERENCES • http://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/feature/Analytics-in-sports-gets-

growing-front-office-role

• http://bridgei2i.com/blog/the-rise-of-business-analytics-in-sports/

• http://bridgei2i.com/blog/how-analytics-is-influencing-player-and-game-performance/

• http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-10-05/news/54653077_1_data-analytics-big-data-unstructured-data

• http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/oct/15/pep-guardiola-bayern-munich-pep-confidential-book-marti-perarnau

Hello there! I am an Ideapreneur. I believe that sustainable business outcomes are driven by relationships nurtured through values like trust, transparency and flexibility. I respect the contract, but believe in going beyond through collaboration, applied innovation and new generation partnership models that put your interest above everything else. Right now 110,000 Ideapreneurs are in a Relationship Beyond the Contract™ with 500 customers in 31 countries. How can I help you?

ABOUT HCL

About HCL Technologies

HCL Technologies is a leading global IT services company working with clients in the areas that impact and redefine the core of their businesses. Since its emergence on the global landscape, and after its IPO in 1999, HCL has focused on ‘transformational outsourcing’, underlined by innovation and value creation, offering an integrated portfolio of services including software-led IT solutions, remote infrastructure management, engineering and R&D services and business services. HCL leverages its extensive global offshore infrastructure and network of offices in 31 countries to provide holistic, multi-service delivery in key industry verticals including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Consumer Services, Public Services and Healthcare & Life sciences. HCL takes pride in its philosophy of ‘Employees First, Customers Second’ which empowers its 103,696 transformers to create real value for customers. HCL Technologies, along with its subsidiaries, had consolidated revenues of US$ 6.1 billion, for the Financial Year ended as on 31st December 2015 (on LTM basis). For more information, please visit www.hcltech.com

About HCL Enterprise

HCL is a $7.1 billion leading global technology and IT enterprise comprising two companies listed in India – HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems. Founded in 1976, HCL is one of India’s original IT garage start-ups. A pioneer of modern computing, HCL is a global transformational enterprise today. Its range of offerings includes product engineering, custom & package applications, BPO, IT infrastructure services, IT hardware, systems integration, and distribution of information and communications technology (ICT) products across a wide range of focused industry verticals. The HCL team consists of over 108,000 professionals of diverse nationalities, who operate from 31 countries including over 505 points of presence in India. HCL has partnerships with several leading global 1000 firms, including leading IT and technology firms. For more information, please visit www.hcl.com

ANALYTICS - SHAPING THE SPORTS INDUSTRY › sites › default › files › ... · ANALYTICS -...

Documents

Transcript of ANALYTICS - SHAPING THE SPORTS INDUSTRY › sites › default › files › ... · ANALYTICS -...