Bayer 04 Leverkusen relies on football analytics and data visualization
3.6 million data points and 1,600 match events are collected for each match in Bundesliga 1 and 2. They are analyzed by experts such as Marcel Daum, match analyst at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. After all, a soccer club is not only a living sporting culture, but also a highly professional commercial enterprise. Data and the associated football analytics have long been a decisive and value-adding component for both the club's playing and business success. That is why every game is translated into data and analyzed.
How fast does a player run? Or the team? Not only the steps of the professionals, but also the movements of the ball and each individual game situation are recorded in detail in all Bundesliga matches. For example, if a player has sprinted from the edge of the penalty area to the center circle, the program calculates the player's position and the speed derived from it 25 times per second. In every soccer stadium, 16 to 20 cameras are installed at different locations to track a soccer match. In addition, four employees per match ensure that the data is fed in correctly.
The ball has to go into the corner. The game has 90 minutes. The Werkself need data.
Software then processes this tracking data into figures. In this way, Sportec Solutions, a subsidiary of the DFL, determines around 3.6 million positional data points per match and 1,600 match events such as goals, passes or fouls, which are used for a variety of purposes. Values that are later used for standard comparisons, such as ball possession or the number of sprints, are also recorded. This football analytics data can be accessed by professional clubs via an online platform and can even be viewed in real time during the game. During and after each match day, the collected raw data is processed and made available to all clubs. This football analytics data later helps with match preparation or scouting.
This is where the collaboration between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and taod begins. The raw data is processed using Python and SQL, stored and modelled in the Snowflake cloud data warehouse and then visualized using the Tableau analytics platform.
Background information on the Bundesliga database
The official match data of the DFL is collected by the DFL subsidiary Sportec Solutions. Although it actually all began with Reinhold Beckmann. In 1992, as head of Sat.1 sports, he initiated the creation of a soccer database. It was developed for the Sat.1 format "ran", the must-see show for all Bundesliga soccer fans. Right from the start, the program impressed with its extensive match analyses. Today, sports enthusiasts have long been accustomed to visualized real-time analysts via touchscreen moderation.
In January 2020, the DFL became the first German Football League to work with Amazon Web Services as its official technology provider. This cooperation enables further innovations in the collection, processing and delivery of match data, including with the help of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Marcel Daum inspires the team with data via Football Analytics
Based on this, the club can enrich and analyze all data and convert it into animations. Daum and sports director Simon Rolfes are looking for ways to communicate the evaluations to the Bayer 04 team that are particularly catchy for the players. "Our job is to visualize these things, to make them visible. Show it, show it in figures, show it in a graphic and, above all, show it so that everyone can understand it in the end," explains data analyst Daum. Inspiring and motivating the Werks-Elf with "datatainment" is likely to remain a concept for the future at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Because, as we all know, after the game is before the game and that is always the hardest part.
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