English Premier League club Manchester City has held the first ever football data hackathon, which looked to uncover new ways of drilling into – and using – data collected from live matches.
The #HackMCFC received almost 400 applications from more than 40 countries, from which a final group of 60 were selected to take part.
Participants were then divided into 14 working groups and given unprecedented access to performance analysis systems, as well as detailed player and match data provided by the Premier League and its official data partners, tech companies OptaPro and ChyronHego.
Using the data, the “hackers” were able to uncover new insights on player performance.
The winning group developed a machine learning algorithm which focused on decision making in games. The judges praised the solution’s effectiveness and potential for future implementation.
The winning team – which consisted of Ben Low, Ben Blackmore, Steven Hassall, Paul Robinson and Lasse Folkersen were given a £7,000 cash prize.
David Eccles, head of ChryonHego’s Tracab player tracking system – and one of the judges – said: “The insights extrapolated from the data by the hackers has proven that we are only just beginning to fully understand the power big data can have on tactical performance and analysis.”
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