In what’s claimed to be a first in soccer, sensors in a match ball as well as the jerseys of both teams were used to collect real-time data in-game to support a live broadcast.
The match last October was a local derby in Germany’s fourth-tier Regionalliga, between the reserve team of FC Bayern Munich and the first team of TSV 1860 Munich.
An analytics technology company, Kinexon, integrated the sensors into the ball and shirts, and partnered with German broadcaster Sport1 to visualize the data for viewers.
Kinexon’s sensors are able to capture the location and motion of the ball and also track any kind of movement from players including acceleration. The sensors are based off the company’s proprietary technology that it claims is “superior to other technologies such as GPS in terms of accuracy.” The sensors work by transmitting the real-time data to Kinexon’s app, which crunches this data into performance insights.
Based on the sensor data, viewers were able to see a wide variety of statistics during the game, including the shot speed, kilometers run and sprint speed incorporated into the telecast. Coaches after the match received comprehensive data analysis of their respective team’s performance also.
In an interview, coach of TSV 1860 Munich, Daniel Bierofka told SPORT1: “This is positive for us. We’ve been testing this technology for a while. We’re helping Kinexon test it, to make it as easy as possible for players and as valuable as possible.”
“I like that the spectator can now how the single player performs,” Bayern Munich II coach Tim Walter said, smiling. “You know, because it is always about, ‘The players, the players they don’t run’ or ‘They don’t do anything at all during the week.’ Consequently, the viewer can finally see how the guys actually perform.”
The match averaged more than 650,000 viewers, the highest since Sport1 began showing German soccer’s Regionalliga.
The first teams of FC Bayern Munich and TSV 1860 Munich have not met in the top tier of Germany soccer, the Bundesliga since April 2004. FC Bayern’s reserve team won the game by 1-0, while 1860 also had a player sent off.