Sports Team Analysis and Tracking Systems— or STATS LLC, is a global company that revolves around sports technology, data, and content, as well as provides next-generation sports technology. Since its inception in 1981, STATS has grown to reach the forefront of the sports technology sector. With their numerous acquisitions, STATS has propelled and cemented themselves to their prominent spot at the forefront of sports data and statistics.
STATS acquisition history is robust. In 2008 they acquired SportVU. A year later, STATS acquired PA Sportsticker. In 2011, STATS expanded further by acquiring National Fantasy Championship (NFC). Bloomberg Sports was purchased by STATS in 2014. And as recent as this year, STATS has made two more acquisitions— The Sports Network and Automated Insights.
Focusing on the more recent acquisitions, STATS bought Bloomberg Sports from Bloomberg LP in September 2014. The purchase of Bloomberg Sports ended Bloomberg’s four years of crunching athletic data. Although neither company commented on the exact terms of the agreement, sources close to the deal reported the price as between $15 million and $20 million.
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Bloomberg Sports has quantitative models and algorithms that would be beneficial to STATS, a company that specializes in real-time and historical sports data. By purchasing a company that has these types of models and algorithms, STATS would not have to contract with another company for those tasks. Rather, STATS can now perform that internally. The purchase of Bloomberg Sports also allows potential growth for STATS in predictive modeling. Predictive modeling uses data to predict the results of games and matches.
Approximately thirty analysts and engineers make up Bloomberg Sports. The operations of Bloomberg Sports include creating analytic tools that are sold to professional leagues, as well as to fantasy sports and gamblers.
Bloomberg Sports President Bill Squadron spoke of the potential from this purchase, ”We’ve built a really strong team of mathematicians. That’s going to be a really big growth area, to drive it together and get there a lot quicker.” Squadron’s position shifted from president of Bloomberg Sports to executive vice president of Pro Analytics once STATS absorbed Bloomberg Sports.
The launch of STATS’ new product— one that projects predictions for fantasy sports— can be attributed to their acquisition of Bloomberg Sports. Starting with baseball and eventually expanding into the NFL, NHL, NBA, and NCAA, this product will have daily fantasy tools that include projections for every player. In fact, STATS actually beat ESPN and Yahoo! for the most accurate projections for fantasy football. “Broadcast, digital and print media are all focused on the explosion of daily fantasy sports and need content to support their audience… We’ve combined Bloomberg Sports technology and analytics with STATS’ rich content and powerful data engines to provide the most accurate daily player projections to our customers,” Squadron said about the new projection system.
In an effort to broaden their portfolio even more, STATS acquired The Sports Network in February 2015. Through numerous mediums, The Sports Network globally reports a variety of content, including news, statistics, injuries, scores, fantasy coverage, weather, game-casts, and more on a 24/7 basis. STATS is strengthening their efforts of evolving the way sports are viewed and comprehended and this acquisition gave the company a broader global audience. According to Walrath, “The combination of STATS and The Sports Network will expand our ability to meet the increasing demand for the creative use of sports data and analytics across different customer segments globally.”
Also in February 2015, STATS acquired Automated Insights, Inc (“Ai”). Ai is an eight-year-old company that is known for having their stories written by “robots.” At Ai’s offices there are no actual robots, but software that is powerful enough to translate data into an adept, polished article. STATS essentially has an infinite amount of data, which can be paired with the algorithms of Ai to write articles and stories— allowing STATS to have articles written without having to staff as many writers.
STATS created so much potential for their company by acquiring Ai. “Imagination is really the only limitation,” said Walrath, “With the technology of artificial intelligence you’ll be covering things in ways you didn’t think of before. I think there is probably a lot of applicability for this and other areas that are going to surprise us after we do the obvious, low-hanging fruit.”
Beginning this spring, Ai will generate thousands of stories predicated on games for the Associated Press. Based on data from these games, the stories will be generated first for Division I baseball. During their appropriate seasons, Ai will cover stories for Division I women’s basketball, Division II and III football, and Division II and Division III men’s basketball. NCAA statistics will be used to produce these stories.
Often, college sports are the overlooked stories, therefore no writer is given that assignment— so by having these stories be generated without a writer, minor leagues and college sports coverage can be produced and the focus of writers can still be on more popular sports.
Rather than focusing solely on the statistics and data, STATS looked for ways to transform their numbers. Through all of these acquisitions, STATS attempted to encompass more facets of the sports technology sector. No longer would STATS have to outsource for predictive analysis because they have their own new wave of data driven models for team and player performance due to their purchase of Bloomberg Sports. And by acquiring Automated Insights, STATS gained an algorithm system that can write articles rather than dedicating writer resources to less popular sports like college and minor leagues. Instead of than creating their own algorithms and systems, facing competition and trying to lure clients away from already successful companies, the simpler option was for STATS to purchase successful companies with operations STATS was looking to add to their capabilities.
The market for sports data and analytics is extremely fragmented, meaning numerous companies provide these services. STATS acquiring those companies unites all of the smaller companies and combines each individual company’s operations, skills, and creating an expansive client base. Automated Insights’ clients include the Associated Press, Samsung, Yahoo, and Comcast. The Sports Network’s service virtually every online newspaper in the United States. STATS absorbed all of their clients, already STATS serves the NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB as clients.
Essentially through all of these business acquisitions STATS broadened their operations— making them an even more versatile company and expanding their global leadership in the sports sector.