Pa Sport & Prozone Takes Sport Data To Market

Press Association Sport, the official data partner of Football DataCo has teamed up with performance analysis specialists Prozone to help take a new stream of football data to market.

Funded by the Premier League, PA Sport and technologists Venatrack have been working together for two seasons to provide greater analysis of performance data to the media and fans. 

28 cameras, situated in every Premier League ground, track the ball, players, and officials – providing deeper levels of analysis – and the collaboration provides data to EA Sports’ performance index to offer fans a manager’s view of player performance for the first time ever.

According to PA Sport – who will continue to service the UK and Asian media – the statistics give greater insight into never-before-revealed details such as work rate, shot speed and fastest players, while interactive graphics featuring every goal from the Premier League, within an hour of it being scored, will now be available to the media.

Commenting on the technology, David Folker, general manager at DataCo, said: ‘It is rewarding to see these new sources of data being made available to the media. All parties in the project have worked very hard to find the right data to promote, while making sure the delivery remains accurate. This is a genuine step forward in the analysis of football performance and with the prospect of adding more depth to the captured analysis, the future of Premier League data is very exciting.’

Blake Wooster, business development director at Prozone, added: ‘As the fan’s appetite for data continues to grow, we’re excited to team up with PA to assist them in distributing the official data to overseas markets, whilst ensuring that our Premier League teams continue to benefit from confidential Prozone data and analysis services.’

The data can also uncover some surprising statistics, Robin Van Persie was last season’s top goal scorer in the Premier League, making 3,317 runs to secure 30 goals – a ratio of 110 runs to each goal scored – more than any other Premier League player. 

In the first round of Premier League games, two West Ham players topped the ‘distance travelled’ table, despite losing 3-0 to Swansea on the opening day. Mark Noble took the number one spot covering 10,408m, with Matthew Taylor in second.

On the same day, Newcastle’s Cheick Tiote struck the fastest shot – with the speed gun hitting 73.04mph.

The data is available in near real-time during the game enabling media reports to be transmitted instantly to its audience.

Speaking about the new relationship Andy Rice, MD of sport commercial at PA Sport, commented: ‘Working with Prozone will strengthen our reseller group – their sports analysis expertise makes them a perfect partner to take this new level of data to the media.’