Opta And Delta Launch Distance Challenge

21 Mar 2016 | tshego

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Opta has teamed up with Delta Air Lines, the official airline of Chelsea FC, to launch the Delta Distance Challenge.

The campaign will offer fans the chance to win a pair of Delta One business class tickets to New York by predicting which Chelsea player’s successful passing distance will match the height of iconic New York landmarks.

The campaign launched on Saturday at the team’s match against West Ham United, with captain John Terry recording a pass distance of 407m, which was closest to the Empire State Building at 432m.

For the first time, Opta has calculated this for every single pass in the Barclays Premier League to reveal the attempted successful pass distance of Chelsea players across five selected matches this season using a custom-built data collection process. Information gathered from the last five Barclays Premier League fixtures this season reveals that the top five Chelsea players’ average successful pass distance per game is 670m.

The Delta Distance Challenge is available to enter online at deltapresents.com and there will be five challenges in total, with a pair of Chelsea home tickets up for grabs with each game.

Speaking about the Delta Distance Challenge, Claudia Neuhoff, Delta’s manager marketing, EMEA said: “Airlines cover a lot of distance, so working with Opta to unveil this data in football for the first time offers another synergy to our partnership. I’m sure it will bring the excitement on the pitch to new heights as fans get more involved in the game and win the flights to New York.”

Duncan Alexander, head of editorial, Opta Sports Data added: “This is the first time Opta has released this level of data into the public sphere and the results should be fascinating viewing.”