STATS LLC

STATS
Private
Industry sports technology, data, and content
Founded April 30, 1981 (1981-04-30)
Founder John Dewan
Headquarters Chicago, Illinois
Key people
 Ken Fuchs (CEO)
Products X-Info, SportVU
Brands Bloomberg Sports, Prozone, TVTI, Automated Insights, The Sports Network, BSports
Owner Vista Equity Partners
Website stats.com

STATS is a sports statistics, technology, data, and content company founded in 1981. STATS provides content to multimedia platforms, television broadcasters, leagues and teams, fantasy providers, and players, in addition to major B2B and B2C brands. STATS provides Associated Press editorial content and maintains relationships with many major sports leagues worldwide.[1] They cover more than 300 leagues and competitions across the globe totaling of 83,000 events annually.[2]

STATS LLC is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois,[3] with other corporate offices in London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing, Bangalore, Dubai, The Hague, Mexico City, New York City and Los Angeles.[4] The company covers 85 sports leagues and over 55,000 events a year.[5]

History

STATS was founded in April 1981[6] by John Dewan,[7] who became the company's CEO. The company name is an acronym for "Sports Team Analysis and Tracking Systems". STATS was an outgrowth of the grassroots non-profit Project Scoresheet, a volunteer network created to collect baseball statistics.[8]

In 1996 STATS and Motorola won on appeal a court case brought by the NBA. The case was barring STATS from distributing in-game information via a special wireless device created by Motorola. The victory in this case has played a large part in other cases where professional sports leagues have tried to suppress live in-game information being distributed by other outlets.[9] STATS is currently the NBA's official provider of statistics.[10]

In the 1990s, STATs expanded to the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, the Women's National Basketball Association, in addition to other sports.[6]

Acquisitions

STATS operated as a private company from 1981 to 2000. STATS was purchased by Fox Sports in 2000 and became a joint venture between News Corporation and The Associated Press in 2005.

In 2009, the company acquired the PA SportsTicker wire service from Press Association, a UK news and information company. SportsTicker had previously been owned by ESPN.[11]

In June 2014, Fox Sports and the AP sold STATS to Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm.[12][13]

During 2014, the platform created over a billion articles and reports for customers such as The Associated Press, Yahoo!, and Comcast.[14] In September 2014, STATS acquired Bloomberg Sports.

In early 2015, STATS acquired The Sports Network, Automated Insights (Ai), and Prozone. [15]

Products

STATS provides several products to leagues, teams, and the media.

The X-Info system provides NFL, NCAA Football and MLB teams with detailed statistics and information to help them interpret the various metrics.[16]

Their SportVU system uses an array of cameras and image processing software to provide real-time player tracking and ball positioning data, as well as statistical analysis of that data.[17] SportVU is used by the NBA,[17] FIFA, UEFA and a host of flagship European soccer teams.[18]

Nearly every franchise in North America's four major professional sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL) uses products from STATS.[19]

With the acquisition of The Sports Network, STATS took over publication of that company's NCAA Division I FCS football poll.

See also

Elias Sports Bureau

References

  1. ↑ "The Evolution of STATS LLC And Its Place In The Sports Technology Landscape". SportTechie. Retrieved 2015-07-16.
  2. ↑ "With clients like the NBA and Google, STATS is the coolest data company you've never heard of". Built In Chicago. Retrieved 2015-07-16.
  3. ↑ STATS LLC official website: Contact Us
  4. ↑ STATS LLC official website: About Us
  5. ↑ STATS website: History
  6. 1 2 STATS website: Timeline
  7. ↑ ACTA Sports: The Bill James Handbook 2009
  8. ↑ Online, Safari Books. Keep Score, Project Scoresheet–Style.
  9. ↑ NBA Lawsuit - AOL.com Archived July 2, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ↑ Abrams, Jonathan. "Quantifying Basketball's Intangibles With Some Help From Computers" New York Times (June 15, 2009)
  11. ↑ http://www.crunchbase.com/company/pa-sportsticker
  12. ↑ Ecker, Danny (2014-05-15). "Stats LLC sold to private-equity firm". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved 2015-04-26.
  13. ↑ "FOX Sports and AP announce sale of sports data company STATS LLC". www.ap.org. Retrieved 2015-07-16.
  14. ↑ "STATS Gets Into the Robot News Game With Automated Insights Acquisition". Chicago Inno. Retrieved 2015-07-16.
  15. ↑ "Stats LLC Makes Athlete Performance Outfit Prozone Its Latest Acquisition". SportsBusiness Daily. SportsBusiness Journal. Retrieved 2015-07-16.
  16. ↑ Mann, Jake. "Football Is Closer to Becoming Moneyball Than You May Think (NWS)". www.fool.com. Retrieved 2015-06-30.
  17. 1 2 "NBA.com/Stats". stats.nba.com. Retrieved 2015-06-30.
  18. ↑ "GOAL! Wait, was that in? How tech will answer the question at the World Cup". Retrieved 2015-07-16.
  19. ↑ "The Evolution of STATS LLC And Its Place In The Sports Technology Landscape". SportTechie. Retrieved 2015-07-16.
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