StatsBomb releasing its industry-leading data for free is the culmination of two important advancements in the football industry.
First is the momentum and development in Women's Football. Following UEFA's #weplaystrong in 2017, initiatives such as the current #whatif campaign from Women in Football, and many others, attention to the Women's game is increasing from grassroots through to media channels, football associations and corporate sponsorship on a global scale.
As noted at our May 9 Global Data Launch, StatsBomb are fully behind this. Not only do we believe that analysis of the Women's game deserves equal attention as the Men's game, we know that by doing this better, we will improve the overall understanding of the game.
We also want to encourage more Women to enter into Analytics, Technology and R&D and have been racking our brains trying to work out how we can best do this ever since we officially formed our company in January 2017. Alongside the developments in Women's Football, StatsBomb have had a phenomenal response to the launch of StatsBomb Data - from the Media, Football clubs and Associations and also from aspiring analysts.
There is an abundance of educated, dedicated football fans seeking quality data for use in personal research and University projects as well as those who produce content for various media sites and publications worldwide.
Combining the global need for free quality data, and our desire to propel the overall knowledge of the Women's game, the solution is obvious.
StatsBomb will provide our industry-leading, quality data spec for a selection of Women's leagues for free! Not only will we provide the data, but we will also provide tuition resources, support and advice to help bolster any analysis that individuals embark on.
This initiative is very much inline with the ethos of StatsBomb since its inception as a content site in 2013. We have always aimed to improve understanding by inviting discussion - whilst built on solid statistical theory, analytics is often not black and white. There are judgement calls all the way through and situations that test the validity of every theory. Only by considering all the different arguments and testing their validity in reality, can you create useful models that can be applied to teams, players and games. To this end, the more educated eyes we can encourage to this arena, the better the industry will be overall.
If you had the opportunity to listen to Grant Wahl's recent pod, you'll already have had a heads up on which leagues we will be making freely available, but we are committing to: National Women's Soccer League - 2018 FA Women Super League - 2018/19 France Feminine - 2018/19 UEFA Women CL - 2018/19.
Ultimately, we believe that by doing this, we are creating opportunities for future generations of Analysts, Coaches, Software Developers, Research Scientists and more whilst hopefully having a positive impact on the Women's game. To find out how to get hold of our free data, head over to the StatsBomb Resource Centre.
We'd love to hear how you get on with your analysis so please do stay in touch via Twitter or email support@statsbomb.com
Good luck! The StatsBomb Team
(Header photo courtesy of the Press Association)