Sports Data Technology Could Save Sports Teams Millions

7/6/17 8:15 AM / by David Gallaher

Sports Business Journal reports that injuries are a team’s fourth largest expense after payroll, facilities and marketing. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, injuries also waste payroll: In 2015, MLB franchises spent over $700 million on player salaries for the season’s 30,000 missed games. That estimate is based on salary payments that still must go to players who are on the disabled list and unable to play. For a team that has lost a star, it goes beyond the lost payroll and lost time to potentially affecting the overall success of the team.

Injuries play a huge performance and financial role in a team’s success. It has been reported in scientific journals and research papers that over 42% of injuries in the NFL are potentially avoidable. There are numerous modifiable techniques a team can use to lower the risk of injuries. The availability of new innovative sports technology and performance analytics has become increasingly important for teams to adopt.

Performance analytics technology can literally predict the “future” of players, by monitoring impacts, movement patterns, and even body chemistry. This information then gets analyzed by smart software programs, like our Athlete Intelligence system, that learn to recognize patterns and predictive analytics. The data will be able to identify the athletes that need to be temporarily pulled to get treatment and to recover—most importantly, before these injuries get worse and cost them either the whole season or worst, their career.

Because of the obvious benefits of performance analytics, its usage has recently made the jump from the early-adopter niche to the mainstream, with teams such as the San Antonio Spurs, Seattle Sounders, Oklahoma City Thunder, New England Patriots, Philadelphia Eagles, and Pittsburgh Pirates embracing this quickly-rising technology.

Now more than ever the sports analytic technology is important to teams, not only to reduce the risk of injuries and financial loss, but simply to continue to hold a competitive advantage within the industry.