LaLiga and Microsoft are collaborating to create ‘Beyond Stats,’ a big data system to enhance fan experience

The renowned LaLiga and Microsoft have developed Beyond Stats, a sophisticated football statistics project that includes a fan-facing online site that is intended to boost the fan experience through big data. Microsoft Azure’s artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities inspired this idea. Beyond Stats is a tool that uses LaLiga Tech’s Mediacoach product to evaluate a huge number of dynamic match day statistics. If you didn’t know, LaLiga Tech is a specialist technology solutions company that focuses on the sports and entertainment industries. It was founded in 2021 under the LaLiga umbrella.

Beyond Stats is an important part of LaLiga’s global fan engagement strategy. For each LaLiga Santander matchday, it offers free content and matchday analysis in both English and Spanish. Beyond Stats intends to expand its reach into television broadcasting in the future by displaying statistics during games. In addition, Beyond Stats, LaLiga, and Microsoft have teamed up to create new Microsoft-powered apps in the future.

Learn more about what LaLiga has recently published for fans, such as LaLiga Tech establishing a new Padel Tour collaboration.

The ability to give fans the degree of knowledge gained by artificial intelligence is very valuable. Not only that but machine learning will analyze data acquired throughout a game. Microsoft will work with LaLiga Tech to find further breakthroughs in this area and to leverage the advantages of cloud computing.

Twenty one new metrics

Beyond Stats is a notch above the traditional stats that fans see. They collect a massive quantity of data in real time throughout each game. This is thanks to the tracking perimeter cameras that feature at 19 LaLiga Santander stadiums. These cameras track the ball’s location as well as the players’ positions. They can also track referees and record their positions at a breathtaking pace of 25 times per second, generating almost 3,500,000 statistics every game.

Next Steps 

The Mediacoach platform, which is also from Microsoft, will next process and handle the data acquired by the cameras. Tracking is based on the location data acquired by cameras and permits the production of measures like the number of sprints, peak speeds, and distances traversed. Shooting crosses into the box, directional changes, substitutions, fouls, and offsides are all examples of technical/tactical occurrences recorded.

Click here to learn more about LaLiga’s technological investments, including its global partnership with Socios.com to create Fan Tokens.

A varied team of LaLiga experts uses Microsoft Azure-powered machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to evaluate the data. Following the study, new algorithms allow fans to visualize the numbers via the Beyond Stats webpage.

The average number of players involved in possession, the success rate of the first pass made after recovering the ball (security pass), dribbles that break the defensive line, the number of recoveries that result in an attack with a numerical advantage, and the likelihood that a shot results in a goal are just a few of the numbers that fans will be able to monitor in front of every round of fixtures.