This Company Is Betting On NFL Coach Analytics Revolutionizing Gaming Decisions

Pixabay photo by KeithJJ

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It’s been 11 years since the movie “Moneyball,” owned by Sony Group Corp.’s SONY Paramount Pictures, exposed many to the shift in professional sports toward analytics in accumulating player data. What Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane launched in baseball is no longer a trend; it’s a daily reality and arguably a necessity for baseball teams to fully evaluate players. 

But the National Football League (NFL) joined the analytics generation grudgingly. A backgammon world champion named Frank Frigo, who had never played football, developed the initial win-probability analytic model, which looks at a team’s past performance on the field compared to the team they are playing to predict a winner.

Jacksonville Jaguars’ Co-Owner and Senior Vice President, Tony Khan, is one of the pioneers in technology and analytics. A co-owner with his father, Shahid Khan, Khan also runs All Elite Wrestling. He shared the NFL’s distrust of analytics in a Sports Illustrated interview.

“There are a lot of skeptics, and that’s honestly probably on the analysts and the statisticians. You have to be able to explain it to the football people on their terms. That’s why I try to study that, to be able to communicate with coaches and scouts on a meaningful level, instead of forcing them to use our terminology,” Khan said.

Enter companies such as Champion Gaming Group Inc. WGRFF WAGR, which has looked to bring the world of football analytics from the field right to its betting customers. Co-founded by a former president of AT&T Inc. T-owned HBO Sports, Ken Hershman, who serves as CEO, the company has announced the development of what they are referring to as the first NFL coaches’ Aggressiveness Index. It’s a new tool for its customers, which, for the first time, looks at analytics not involving individual player performance.

Champion built the index to compare how often coaches attempt to gain a first down in different fourth-down situations against the historical average of how often coaches have tried to convert on fourth down in those situations in the past.

The company’s announcement coincides with the anniversary of the advent of predictive data and analytics with the creation of EdjSports and Football Outsiders. Both EdjSports and Football Outsiders were acquired by Champion last year.

"In today's NFL, the common fan is comfortable in hearing and understanding predictability outcomes like success rates on long field goals, winning percentage in adverse weather and a coach's success of going for it on fourth down,” Champion’s Chief Information Officer Frank Frigo said. “Twenty years ago, football data didn't move past player stats. Given the situational and strategic nature of football, we saw an opportunity to use data and analytics to develop predictive outcomes to allow for smarter on-field decision making and a reduction in situational risk."

EdjSports was founded in 2013 by Frigo and Sean O'Leary with the goal to empower more intelligent decision-making for gaming customers with predictive and prescriptive analytical models and custom software solutions for the sports industry. In 2018, EdjSports acquired Football Outsiders, which creates in-depth NFL and NCAA advanced statistics.

"In looking back on 20 years of coaching decisions, it's clear that the presence and acceptance of data and analytics have empowered a new generation of coaches to rethink conventional wisdom on fourth-down situations," Football Outsiders’ Editor-In-Chief Aaron Schatz said.

For more information on Champion Gaming, visit www.championgaming.com.

This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice.