With most NFL teams turning towards more substantive approaches to the game and analysis, the Seahawks announced a new pact with Amazon.
How machine learning and advanced analysis transform the NFL
Jason Hiner from TechRepublic explains how big data and AI change how the NFL is played, how the Super Bowl is broadcast and how fans view the game.
Artificial intelligence penetrates every field and now finds a home in the sport. With the onset of Moneyball-obsessed executives running professional teams, data analysis has become increasingly prominent, particularly in the NFL.
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Amazon Web Service announced on Monday that it will work with the Seattle Seahawks to provide the team with cloud services, machine learning tools and artificial intelligence capabilities.
The Seattle Seahawks is ahead of the curve within the NFL and can point to the 2014 Super Bowl victory as proof of the method’s success. The new deal allows the team to store, sort and provide in-depth analysis of not only statistical but also game images, officials said.
SEE: Amazon Web Services: a guide for insiders (free PDF (TechRepublic Premium)
In a statement, Amazon said its tools “will inform game strategy, improve operational efficiency, and accelerate decision making to improve game-to-game game performance.”
The team will also be able to merge its data with the grainy information available through the weekly NFL Next Gen Stats player tracking data, which tracks the position of the ball and each player 10 times per second.
Chip Suttles, vice president of technology at the Seattle Seahawks, said the team chose AWS because of its focus on innovation, a wide range of machine learning services and experience supporting large-scale sports organizations and companies worldwide.
“As our official cloud provider, AWS will enable the Seahawks to become a data-driven organization that uses the power of technology to feed future championships,” Suttles said.
“The breadth and depth of AWS services will help us to extract and localize every possible benefit from the huge amount of data we collect, providing us with the useful insights we need to positively influence our decision making,” he added to it.
The Amazon tools not only help with the on-field product. The Seahawks plan to use the AWS system to provide business insights about fan behavior and the range of stadiums.
Team officials said they bundled their data to build an expanded data lake filled with NFL data, team statistics and other information, including player health and wellbeing data, scouting information to better understand players’ capabilities. Coaches receive real-time statistics about players and team performance.
With the ML Solutions Lab from Amazon, the Seahawks can create a huge, cloud-based video analysis platform that traces images of practices and games. In addition, Amazon Rekognition, an in-depth image and video analysis service, helps the team to track and categorize attack and defensive strategies from other teams.
“Data has become a competitive differentiator for sports franchises, but these organizations need the most complete and fully equipped set of machine learning and analysis capabilities to analyze and influence that data to influence player performance and improve the championship,” said Mike Clayville, AWS vice president of global commercial sales.
“The Seahawks of Seattle use AWS ‘extensive portfolio of ML and AI services to reinforce their cloud-first strategy and take their gameplay to the next level,” Clayville said. “We look forward to helping the Seahawks develop greater insights that will continue them as a world-class sports organization.”
SageMaker, Amazon’s other machine learning platform, enables the NFL team to gain more insight from hurry, knockdown and bag information, giving them insight into how certain teams or quarterbacks react to pressure.
With this, defending players will know how to respond to offenses based on other player actions on the field. The data-heavy approach now dominates the MLB and now the NFL. It is now common practice to have tablets on the sidelines every week.
“We strive to be a consistent team of champion caliber on and off the field, which means we equip our football activities with the best possible tools to win,” said Chuck Arnold, president, Seattle Seahawks and First & Goal Inc.
“We are delighted to partner with AWS and their unparalleled analysis services to leverage the power of data and have an immediate impact on our team.”
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