In the early days of StatsBomb, back when we just started working on StatsBomb IQ, the bulk of our revenue came from consulting for teams and agents. There were a number of consultancies available back then, but our experience in applying real data-driven principles across actual football teams (Brentford and Midtjylland), meant we brought something different to the table.
StatsBomb the company has evolved dramatically since then.
Our goal is to be the world’s best sports data provider, and with 100 paying businesses around the globe already, we feel we are on our way to realising that goal. In 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic hitting team budgets everywhere, I decided to shut down the consulting side of our business. Demand had cratered as teams slashed budgets, and despite the fact that our team was doing some great work, consulting doesn’t scale.
Our future has always been in data and software, so trimming one of our roots was painful, but it made sense. And then a funny thing happened this spring… our customers overruled me.
Despite telling people we weren’t doing consulting projects anymore, and despite not selling these services at all, we had a flood of demand that was now very difficult to keep up with.
- Help one of the world’s best players make a decision about his future? Check.
- Help another of the world’s best players make the best possible case for his next contract? Also check.
- Help some of our favourite customers find their next head coach?
- Consult with a top national team around set piece and throw-in execution before a major tournament?
- Provide expertise to ownership groups looking to purchase new clubs in a dynamic football landscape that is evolving incredibly fast?
Check. Check. Check.
This doesn’t include some specific data science projects that are NDA’d, but those happen fairly regularly throughout the year as well.
Oh, and we keep finding talented people new jobs, both at StatsBomb and at football clubs everywhere. We were bombarded with this business because people trust and value our expertise. Which is great! But we had so many projects come in that we had to turn some down, and accomplishing those we did stretched our focus on our main products painfully at times. So we have hired someone to oversee consultancy and professional services going forward.
I am delighted to introduce you to Chris Galley.
Chris comes to us from a decade at Matthew Benham’s Smartodds, where he was Head of Trading for their sports hedge fund. Chris has also worked behind the scenes helping English Premier League team Brentford* and UEFA Champions League team Midtjylland* with head coach searches and player recruitment since 2011, taking a more official role around these responsibilities in 2017.
We have a long history of industry-respected expertise inside of our company. Our former Lead Technical Scout is now Director of Recruitment at the Vancouver Whitecaps. Our first data scientist Derrick Yam now works for the Baltimore Ravens. I think Chris not only continues that tradition, but enhances it with practical successful experience across the football and gambling industries and we are very excited to add him to the StatsBomb team.
Please send any consultancy enquiries to Sales@StatsBomb.com
* Seriously, how crazy is that sentence?
–Ted Knutson CEO, StatsBomb