“Using tech, we discovered soccer player Harvey Elliot’s capabilities before the rest of the world did”

“We combined data and a target to use our power of technology to create equal opportunities for all the soccer players in the world,” said Guy Aharon, co-founder and CEO of Playermaker during Calcalist’s Cloud and Data conference. “We attach sensors to players’ boots, and the back of a player’s left leg, and track the athletes’ movement: we count how many times their foot touched the ball, how many times they kicked, how fast they run, and how high they jump,” explained Aharon. The company used this information to identify Liverpool soccer player Harvey Elliot’s capabilities.

The sensors that Playermaker developed save the information, and at the end of the game upload it all to the cloud. Much of the analyses are conducted by the sensor, and the data that is uploaded to the cloud has largely already been processed. It is then that it is compared to that of other players on the field. “We enable players to understand their capabilities compared to past games and also compared to other players on the field, and other benchmarks,” Aharon explained. “If I’m a 28-year-old player and I want to compare myself to the best players in the world, big data allows me to compare my abilities to theirs.”

Watch Aharon’s full presentation in the video above.