Introducing the new sponsor of the TGG Podcast: Genius Sports

We’ve written a lot about the way in which tracking data has transformed football operations, with data scientists using this goldmine of positional co-ordinates to create valuable insights for use in recruitment, tactics, performance and more. 

Well, Genius Sports is the company that capture this live data with their FIFA-approved Dragon tracking cameras, which are now installed in stadia worldwide. Genius Sports works with more than 100 global teams, as well as leagues including the Premier League, UEFA, Ligue 1 and many more.

The Dragon cameras are fully-automated and remotely operated, meaning personnel are not required inside the stadia to operate them. Dragon is sport’s most advanced computer vision system, capturing large-scale video and data in real time, delivering a 360-degree, 3D view of play. 

Coaches and analysts are provided with a full-field panoramic and tactical view, with all 20 outfield players and the ball constantly in frame. The millions of data points are automatically fed into the GeniusIQ platform, providing a machine learning of sport, and Genius Sports’ Performance Studio transforms them into insights in the form of data, video and visualisations.

Genius Sports automatically syncs tracking and event data, indexing it to multiple video angles, enabling rich analysis, while their real-time eventing system removes much of the reliance on human collection. 

Dragon and GeniusIQ are powered by a new innovation called Mesh Tracking, which interprets thousands of surface mesh data points per player over 200 times per second, which equates to billions of data points per game.

This compares to 50 data points per player with legacy skeletal tracking. By combining machine learning and mesh tracking, Genius can create an “exact digital replica of a physical match”, which takes analysis to another level. 

Genius Sports is also the company behind Semi-Automated Offside Technology, which recently hit the news when it was used in English football for the first time during February’s FA Cup fifth ties. 

“We are delighted to be involved with the relaunch of the TGG Podcast, with brings cutting-edge insights from the brightest minds in football,” Genius said.