Event overview
The StatsBomb Conference made a long-awaited return to Stamford Bridge in October 2021. We welcomed various individuals from across the sports analytics sphere for a day of industry-leading talks, data-driven research and unique networking opportunities.
Who was speaking?
The 2021 Conference hosted a stellar line up of industry speakers on the Main Stage in the Drake Suite.
Speakers from a range of football clubs, and other sports gave coveted insight into their internal processes and research projects.
If a speakers' talk is available, you can click on the individual to watch it back.
Dr Ian Graham: Director of Research, Liverpool FC
Ian has worked for Liverpool FC since 2012 and currently leads the data and analytics research team.
Ted Knutson: CEO, StatsBomb
Ted is an entrepreneur with decades of leadership experience. He leads the global StatsBomb team in his role as CEO.
Daryl Morey: President of Basketball Operations for Philadelphia 76ers
Daryl is one of the most experienced practitioners in the NBA. He is currently the President of Basketball Ops at the Philadelphia 76ers.
Mladen Sormaz: Head of Football Analytics, Leicester City
Mladen has years of professional experience using data in football. He joined Leicester in 2019 as their Head of Football Analytics.
Vosse De Boode: Head of Sport Science and Data Analytics, AFC Ajax
Vosse joined AFC Ajax in 2011. She drives the integration of data in the club’s day-to-day operations.
Harry Moyal: Deputy General Manager, Olympique Lyonnais
Harry manages the football data science department as part of his role at Olympique Lyonnais.
Will Kuntz: SVP of Soccer Operations & Assistant GM, Los Angeles FC
Will is highly experienced in US sports analytics, having worked in MLB prior to his current role at LAFC.
Victor Orta: Director of Football, Leeds United
Victor has held senior roles at clubs across Europe, and is now Director of Football at Leeds United.
James Cryne: Director and Co-Owner, Barnsley FC
James is a Director and Co-Owner at Barnsley FC, one of the most data-driven clubs in the EFL. James leads the data strategy at the club.
Devin Pleuler: Director of Analytics, Toronto FC
Devin oversees the use of data in the club’s performance analysis and player recruitment
Highlights
Amongst speaker presentations, the main stage also hosted an industry-leading panel and fire-side conversation.
Research competition
The Harris Suite featured a variety of hand-picked presenters giving attendees an exclusive window into the current state of play surrounding innovative research in football analytics.
The nature of the papers covered a variety of topics, including driving goalkeeper decisions, identifying high pressing styles and penetrative passes. These talks contained the first sets of publicly-available research performed on StatsBomb 360 data.
Click each individual to view their talk.
Optimally Disrupting Opponent Build-ups
DTAI Sports Analytics Lab, KU Leuven
Potential Penetrative Pass (P3)
Hadi Sotudeh
Identifying high pressing styles using event data
Nicole Kozlova: StatsBomb
Phases of the play using Graph* Convolutional Networks
Juan Camilo Campos
What drives the goalkeepers’ decisions?
Samer Fatayri, Kirill Serykh, Egor Gumin
Splitting GSAA: finding the best shot-stopper for your team
Max Odenheimer, John Harrison
The quest for the right pass: Decision making
Javier M. Buldú, Borja Burriel
“Can we have our ball back, please?”
Will Morgan: StatsBomb
Turning with the ball & decision-making under pressure
Soumyajit Bose, Manas Saraswat
Our sponsors and exhibitors
We couldn’t have set up this event without the generous help of our sponsors. To read sponsor profiles, click each logo opposite.
Headline Sponsor
Catapult
Catapult are one of the leading providers of performance analysis software and wearable technology in the football industry.
Their MatchTracker software brings together all the user's performance data into one place, including event data, camera-based tracking, GPS, biometric, and coach or analyst tagging. The data can then be combined with multiple video angles so that game moments can be viewed in context and performance can be compared with the opposition, the user's previous games, and between players in the team.
Sponsor
Metrica
Metrica Sports was born from the desire to provide clubs with the necessary tools to transform raw data into an actionable output, to elevate performance in sports through video and data analysis. From grassroots to elite, Metrica Sports brings the power behind the game, providing state-of-the-art performance analysis tools to teams and media organisations at all levels of the game. Break down the game with coding tools, automatic telestration and share with your coaching staff and players. Also, integrate your own data and patterns for visualisation and create custom data and physical reports. Forever free plan available.
Event gallery
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