StatsBomb

All sports are defined by their objectives and the constraints within which those objectives can be achieved. In football, the objective is to score more goals than your opponent. Ergo, every decision taken or action carried out on a football pitch should be, and almost exclusively is, an attempt to increase your own team’s chances of scoring a goal and/or decreasing your opponent’s chances of scoring a goal.

Hudl Statsbomb Conference 2024 Hudl Statsbomb Conference: Research Posters The 2024 Hudl Statsbomb Conference was held at Old Trafford, Manchester just over a month ago. As part of the event, we invited the winners of our Research Competition to showcase their work to an audience of industry experts and professionals. We received numerous submissions, and the quality of the proposals was incredibly high, making the selection process quite challenging.

Today marks an exciting new chapter in global football analytics. At the 2024 Statsbomb Conference, Hudl’s Senior Director of Elite Football, Ty Chin, and Hudl’s Senior Director of Product, Robert Wood, unveiled the official rebranding of StatsBomb to Hudl Statsbomb—a significant step in further integrating our world-class, data-driven solutions with Hudl’s broader ecosystem of products.

Over the course of the last decade, team and player analysis has undergone a revolution. Analysis was once performed using limited video and basic data resources. Now teams have access to video and analysis software that can dramatically enhance the quality and speed of their work, whether in player recruitment or opposition scouting.

It’s a privilege to once again host the Research Track stage at the StatsBomb Conference, with the winners of our research paper competition presenting their work to an audience of industry experts and professionals. We’re delighted to be able to release the research papers from the successful participants today, ahead of the event on Friday, 11th October. This year, we asked for papers that followed the theme: Trade Off's. As with much of life, football involves many trade-offs.

Tactical fouls are a polemic subject within football. Many view them as a valid defensive resource but there are plenty more who see them as a cynical exploitation of the rules. They are also something that I find interesting to investigate from a data standpoint. Earlier this year, on our Spanish website, I analysed tactical fouls in La Liga; now, my attention turns to the Brasileirão, the top flight of Brazilian football.

Last week I used StatsBomb data to look at variations in formation, personnel, and motion usage on offense. This week I am turning my attention to the defense. Similar to what we do for offensive formation, the StatsBomb data science team has built models that use player location tracking data to classify fronts, blitz, and coverage type.

Formation Variance in CFB So far in our 2024 College Football preview series, THE Coach Matt Edwards has used StatsBomb physical metrics to look at returning players you should know. In this preview, I am going to shift gears and evaluate teams doing interesting things with formations and personnel. On a college football Saturday, if I have no rooting interest during a specific TV viewing window, and there is no big matchup, I usually try and pick a game that will present something odd.

Since our inception, StatsBomb has been at the forefront of educating the next generation of football analysts. We’re committed to providing materials and resources to develop the skills needed to enter the industry, from free datasets and code to industry-standard education and training courses. We’ve opened the doors to our extensive knowledge base, all to help aspiring analysts hone their craft.

Since our inception, Hudl Statsbomb has been at the forefront of educating the next generation of football analysts. We’re committed to providing materials and resources to develop the skills needed to enter the industry, from free datasets and code to industry-standard education and training courses. We’ve opened the doors to our extensive knowledge base, all to help aspiring analysts hone their craft.