| Stats Perform | |
| Type: | Private |
| Hq Location City: | London |
| Hq Location Country: | United Kingdom |
| Areas Served: | --> |
| Key People: | Carl Mergele (CEO) |
| Industry: | Sports technology and data |
| Owner: | Vista Equity Partners |
Stats Perform (formerly STATS, LLC and STATS, Inc.) is a sports AI company formed through the combination of Stats and Perform.[1]
The company is involved in sports data collection and predictive analysis for use across various sports sectors including professional team performance, digital, media, broadcast and betting. The company began investing in AI in 2015. It has nearly 400* patents for sports AI, 140+ AI models and 8 foundational Generative AI models which power advanced analysis for its clients.[2]
Its clients include media outlets, sports leagues and teams, fantasy sports and sports betting services. As of 2023, the company covers 500,000+ matches and 3,900 competitions annually and produces an infinite number of datapoints per game.
Stats Perform is headquartered in London, with other office locations including Limerick, Aveiro, Castelfranco Veneto, Beijing, Bangalore, Chennai, Graz, Katowice, Madrid, Nice, Paris and Prague.
In addition to their offices, Stats Perform have full-time staff all over the globe operating in local markets including the United States, Sydney, Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Singapore, Thailand, Dubai and Tokyo.
STATS, Inc. was founded in April 1981[3] by John Dewan,[4] who became the company's CEO. The company name is an acronym for "Sports Team Analysis and Tracking Systems". STATS was an outgrowth of the grassroots non-profit Project Scoresheet, a volunteer network created to collect baseball statistics.[5]
Perform Group was originally formed in 2007 via the merger of Premium TV Limited and Inform Group. It was originally involved in content distribution, subscription, advertising and sponsorship, and technology and production.[6]
In 2013, Perform Group acquired Opta Sports. Opta was founded in 1996 and remains part of Stats Perform.[7]
In 2019, Stats merged with Perform Content following its sale to parent company Vista Equity Partners.[8]
In June 2014, Fox Sports and the AP sold STATS LLC to Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm.[9] [10]
In early 2015, STATS acquired the wire services The Sports Network and Prozone. Vista Equity Partners also acquired Automated Insights, a company involved in using natural-language generation based on big data (including in particular, generating wire reports on sporting events from raw statistics).[11]
In April 2019, Vista Equity Partners announced its intent to acquire Perform Content, the former sports data subsidiary of Perform Group.[12] The company was selling the property to focus more on its sports streaming service DAZN. It was stated that DAZN Group would retain a "significant minority stake" in the surviving entity, which was to focus strongly on the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.[13] [14] [15]
On 15 July 2019, it was announced that the merged company would be known as Stats Perform, and operate under STATS CEO Carl Mergele. He stated that the company would "[harness] the power of immense amounts of sports data with unparalleled AI technology".[16] [17]
In December 2020 Stats Perform acquired Thuuz Sports’ AI-powered fan engagement tools.[18]
In July 2021 Stats Perform acquired 13strides, a visual content studio for sport.[19]
Over its history, Stats Perform has built several long-term partnerships with global sports leagues and federations to collect and commercialise sports data, streaming and AI capabilities. These include Premier League, WTA, FIBA, La Liga and Serie A.[20] [21] [22] [23]
As well as commercial services, Stats Perform also provides integrity services to major leagues to help in the prevention, detection and response to match manipulation.[24]
Stats Perform divides services into four sections. They are Media, Big Tech, Professional Teams and Betting Operators. The media section services the digital media market through the PressBox platform, a content creation tool, the tech section works with large technology companies to provide them with data feeds, metrics and live commentary. Betting companies also receive ultra-fast data services. Professional sports teams are assisted with detail in relation to player data for recruitment, contractual and opposition research. Opta AI generative AI models underpin the services.
Opta Index Limited was founded in 1996 to analyse Premier League football matches and was contracted by Sky Sports for their television broadcasts of the 1996–97 season. The following season, Opta became the official statistics provider for the league itself and became sponsored by Carling.
The company was sold to Perform Group in 2013 for £40 million and remains part of Stats Perform. Today the Opta brand, its stats and Opta AI predictions are seen in sports media all over the world.[25] [26] [27] [28]
When the merger of the two organisations was announced, CEO Carl Mergele pointed to the importance of AI technology in the future of sports and sports media. Since that point, the organisation has continued to invest in technologies, patents and models in the AI area. As a result, they've been able to deliver a series of products and services from player tracking and content creation to personalisation and predictive analytics including Opta Vision, its generative AI service to provide complete match analysis for elite global football used by premier teams like Palmeiras [29] and the Opta Supercomputer [30] which powers deeper storytelling for media and broadcasters .