FEATURE: CLOUD SOLUTIONS
team performance is nigh-impossible. That’s
where Sports One comes in.”
Carpenter says there is a global war for
talent, and this is even more closely fought in
the sports industries.
“Social listening integrated into Sports One
can pick up fan conversations about which
players are perceived to be performing well,
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which may be precursors to injury. With this
insight at hand, sports teams can make more
informed decisions over how players are
managed for optimal performance.”
Sport’s mass appeal and global reach
make the fan experience essential to the
growth and success of sports disciplines
and teams. Large sports events can draw
billions of viewers – the FIFA World Cup
WHILE IT WAS INITIALLY DESIGNED TO
SUPPORT FOOTBALL TEAMS, SPORTS
ONE HAS BEEN ADOPTED BY A RANGE
OF OTHER SPORTS DISCIPLINES.
pointing talent scouts to potential future
superstars,” he said.
“The ability to identify talent at an
earlier stage further enables better talent
development, helping grow and develop
promising players. Through the deep analytics
embedded in the platform, team managers
can also start identifying patterns that
point to exhaustion or excessive workload,
“In a long-standing project with Sailing Team
Germany, we applied our data analytics and
planning expertise to reduce the complexity
of sailing and make what is happening on
the water more compelling for crews and
sailing fans.
“The solutions focused on the team and the
events, with event solutions using live streams,
real-time and post-race analyses, and data
analytics of wind and water conditions to
make the races more comprehensible and
hands-on for spectators and fans.
“In another example, our work with Formula
1 teams has given viewers unprecedented
access to data relating to trackside
conditions, including the temperature of the
tyres, the G-force experienced by drivers at
different stages of the race, and more, to
give fans exciting new data points to interact
and engage with.”
attracts on average 3.5 billion viewers,
with 1 billion watching the 2014 final
alone – and technology has emerged as a
vital component to improving the viewing
experience for fans. From ‘gut feel’ to verified data
“The explosion in data use in sports has
created compelling new opportunities to
provide fans with deeper levels of insight and
engagement,” said Carpenter. “The world is evolving to the point where we
can generate deep, accurate insights about
anything happening in the physical world,”
he said.
Carpenter believes the sports industry is
moving away from ‘gut feel’ to a more
science-based approach built on accurate data.
“This was evident in a recent project with
the Volvo Ocean Race, where we used our
SAP Leonardo IoT Edge technology to track
sailors’ fitness levels and exhaustion during
the race, so that the crew can optimise their
performance based on the data collected.
Physical and mental exhaustion are the
biggest threats to crews during the eight-
month race – considered to be one of the
toughest of any sports event in the world
– and by using technology we take the
guesswork out of the crew’s fatigue, reaction
to weather conditions, stress levels and other
biometric measurement data.
“Successful sports teams will increasingly
use technology and data to understand
how to improve performance. European and
US sports teams already make great use of
data; with the introduction of SAP Sports
One here on our continent, African teams
have access to a powerful platform that can
improve and optimise every aspect of their
operations, training and performance.” n
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