In this episode of the Sports Tech AllStars Podcast, we present Josh Helmrich, Senior Director of Media Strategy, Business Development and Next Gen Stats at the NFL.
The conversation explores how the NFL went from zero player tracking data to a platform that powers broadcast graphics, officiating decisions, coaching strategy, health and safety research and the Madden video game - and what the next evolution of that platform looks like now that optical tracking has entered the picture.
Takeaways
Next Gen Stats started as a working project name that nobody gave much thought
The NFL chose wearable ultra-wideband tracking over optical at the start because of the unique occlusion challenges in American football
In the first game of tracking, the NFL collected more data than in the entire history of the league combined
Marrying optical and wearable tracking together is the real unlock
The Big Data Bowl identified a winning rushing yards model from a Japanese team that had never watched American football and did not speak English
Ball tracking at the bottom of a pile-up remains an unsolved problem
The NFL now has 29 data points per player at 10 frames per second
Innovation partners do not need to wait for the NFL to come to them
The Big Data Bowl has become a talent pipeline, placing graduates directly into NFL clubs and the league office
To learn more, visit: https://nextgenstats.nfl.com
Get in touch with Josh Helmrich at:linkedin.com/in/josh-helmrich-07a93510
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction
02:11 Sports Innovation Düsseldorf and the NFL in Europe
03:17 How the NFL Is Building an International Fan Base
05:18 The Origin of Next Gen Stats
06:02 Why the NFL Chose Wearable Tracking Over Optical
08:17 The Evolution of Sensors
10:34 Why Optical Tracking Took 10 Years to Arrive in the NFL
12:27 Ball Tracking in Football vs Other Sports
13:17 Was There a Plan or Did the Use Cases Reveal Themselves?
14:27 Enabling Coaches, Officials and Health Teams to Find Their Own Use Cases
15:49 AWS, the Big Data Bowl and Opening Up NFL Data
16:33 What the Big Data Bowl Actually Is and Why It Works
18:24 The Japanese Team That Won Without Ever Watching American Football
20:31 How the Big Data Bowl Became a Talent Pipeline for NFL Clubs
21:45 How the NFL Evaluates and Partners With New Technology Providers
22:56 The Unsolved Problem: Ball Tracking at the Bottom of a Pile-Up
24:09 What Kind of Technology the NFL Is Actively Looking For
25:09 What the Next 12–18 Months Look Like for Next Gen Stats
26:23 A Call to Action for International Sports Tech Innovators
27:42 Favourite Sporting Moment
