Salesforce, a provider of customer relationship management technology, will host an interactive experience this weekend at the Indy 500. The activation will provide fans with deep-dive analyses of historical driver and race data.
Using the computing power of its Einstein Analytics product, Salesforce will enable fans to explore data from past Indy 500 races held from 2011 to 2017 in an experience dubbed the Analytics Pit Stop Experience. Salesforce will also be present on the racetrack as a sponsor of J.R. Hildebrand’s No. 66 car.
Fans at the track will be able to access a leaderboard to compare top drivers by past race results, fastest lap, biggest movers, laps led and on-track passes. Another installation will allow fans to pit two drivers against one another, comparing them using statistics such as starting position, average speed, time in pit stops, number of pit stops, laps led, and passes.
A third installation will take fans through an interactive race track display showing which driver had the fastest time and fastest average speed for each section of the track.
The app is based entirely on IndyCar timing data collected since 2011. The stats have come from sensors around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that track cars as they zoom past.
“But by using this simple data, we are able to derive all sorts of relevant insights that help provide a deeper understanding of each race as it unfolded,” says Neeraj Munshi, senior solution architect at Einstein Analytics. “It allows us to identify where each car is on track at every point in the race, which in turn helps us to identify things like where and when passes occurred, how cars ran over a long stint (period of driving between pit stops), or which cars were best carrying their straightaway speed through the speedway’s four turns.”
SportTechie Takeaway
Data analytics are frequently used to help athletes and teams perform better and to make sports organizations back-end operations more efficient. But analytics are increasingly showing up in fan experiences as well, offering spectators new perspectives on the sports they love.
Analytics will inevitably trickle down to every aspect of sports business. With rich datasets and resources that turn data into actionable intelligence, fans might one day use services such as Einstein Analytics to make determinations about real-time bets now that gambling has been legalized.