SAP Launches Cloud-Based Sports Management Platform

SAP has announced a new cloud-based platform for football clubs to aid day-to-day management of the team, prepare for matches and assess player health.

The HANA-based Sport One for Soccer is targeted at administrators, coaches, scouts, analysts and medical staff and is based on the Match Insights platform used by the German national football team during its successful World Cup campaign last summer.

The platform can be viewed on any device and includes components for team management, training, player fitness and performance analysis. This information can be used to customise training, create tactics and player development.

Post-match analysis is strengthened by integration with Opta and Prozone data, with the possibility of more databases being supported in the future.

SAP Sports One

Each player has their own medical history, which tracks performance, injuries and medication, allowing teams to minimise the threat of injury. SAP showed off a prototype health application to TechWeekEurope in Australia during the Cricket World Cup, claiming it could help extend the careers of cricketers.

“Competition is growing increasingly fierce, while athletic performance is reaching a peak. Our customers are looking for new ways to go beyond these limits,” said Stefan Wagner, general manager of media, sports and entertainment at SAP general manager. “We believe that SAP technology can open up such untapped potential, providing entirely new insights for better performance. On a single platform, SAP Sports One helps teams and organisations make better decisions to bring the best out in their players – and win.”

SAP Sports One will be adapted for other sports in the future, with the Czech Republic national hockey team using an adapted version of the Match Insights platform during the upcoming World Championships.

The German firm sees sports as a high profile method of showcasing its wares and has worked nwith other sporting organisations like the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).

Most recently, SAP used statistical analysis to create insights for the official Cricket World Cup website and to help the International Cricket Council (ICC) create insights from social media data.

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