Gupta appointed as Chelsea’s first Chief Analytics Officer

Since buying Chelsea in May 2022, co-owners Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly have made their commitment to data science very clear.

Speaking in October 2022, Clearlake Managing Partner Behdad Eghbali said: “We’ve looked at it and we think European sports is probably 20 years behind US sports in terms of sophistication on the commercial side, sophistication on the data side. 

“I had one super high-level Sporting Director at (one of) the world’s top three clubs tell me, when I asked about their approach to data, ‘The data’s my eyes, I pick players on my eyes.’

“He has six scouts, no data. We know of good sports teams in any league here (the United States), there’s 10, 20, 30 data analysts and wide use of data. That’s one area we think there’s a lot of runway for European sports.”

This is why Gupta is such a critical hire for the Chelsea co-owners. Eghbali and Boehly, who also co-owns the LA Dodgers baseball team, had been determined to bring in a big-hitter from US sport to build an elite data science operation at Stamford Bridge.

Gupta joined the Timberwolves in July 2019, initially to assist in the Collective Bargaining Agreement and team analytics, before being promoted to Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations in 2021.

He also worked with the Houston Rockets, Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons during a total of 18 years in the NBA. In 2006, the American created the ‘NBA Trade Machine’ for ESPN, allowing users to assume the role of a General Manager and assess which player trades were possible under the Bargaining Agreement.