WHY BUNDESLIGA CHOOSES AWS

Bundesliga, Germany’s premier national football league, is using AWS to deliver real-time statistics that improve insights into game strategy and outcomes, and recommend personalized content for their 500 million global fans and partners across multiple channels. They are using AWS ML services including Amazon SageMaker, Amazon Personalize, and Amazon Rekognition and analytics to improve the broadcast product and are exploring new distribution formats to increase the global Bundesliga fan base, while transforming its business operations to help the league and its clubs build services, automate processes, enhance its use of data, and be more cost efficient.

Engaging and Delighting Fans

By using AWS, the Bundesliga is providing advanced real-time statistics and in-depth insights called Bundesliga Match Facts, and will bring personalized experiences to its fans. With over 500 million Bundesliga fans around the world, they will gain more advanced insights into players, teams, and the league because AWS’s leading technology will deliver a more personalized experience and the next generation of statistics.

Enhancing the Broadcast Product

Bundesliga uses AWS machine learning, AI, analytics, and other innovative technologies to improve the broadcast product and explore new distribution formats to increase the global Bundesliga fan base. By using AWS Media Services, Bundesliga games are being streamed with more flexibility and interactivity than ever to global fans, live and time-shifted within the event-stream on the IP-enabled device viewers prefer.

Improving Business Operations

With AWS, Bundesliga will transform business operations to help the league and clubs build services, automate processes, enhance data usage, and be more cost efficient, while better understanding the outputs of what is produced. By working with AWS Professional Services, Bundesliga has already reduced operational costs by 75% with a highly scalable serverless streaming infrastructure.

 

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ENGAGING THE FANS

Bundesliga leverages AWS’s unmatched set of cloud services, including machine learning and analytics, to produce its set of advanced statistics, Bundesliga Match Facts. AWS and the Bundesliga are the first to deliver this unique combination of real-time advanced statistics and game analyses to soccer fans around the world. 

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  • Many statistics are related to the tactical behavior of the teams, the accuracy in finishing, the general attacking behavior and much more. But only a few statistics explicitly dealt with perhaps the most important single position in soccer, the goalkeeper. The new Bundesliga Match Fact Keeper Efficiency provides fans insights on the skill of the goalkeeper. 

  • Teams are using pressure as a technique to disrupt a player’s rhythm. Most Pressed Player shows how often a player is receiving significant pressure from his opponents by measuring the number of opposing players, their distance to the player in possession, as well as the direction of every players’ movement. This advanced statistic will also compare the number of pressing situations a player receives compared to pressure situations faced by his teammates, helping determine which players are pressured more often.

  • As teams look to exploit defensive weaknesses to gain control of the ball and ultimately, score, Attacking Zones allows fans to see where teams focus their offense to create scoring opportunities. Attacking Zones are defined as an area on the field that a team uses to attempt to score a goal. This will show fans where a team is attacking and which side that team views as most opportunistic to score.

  • Evolving the Match Fact, Average Positions, this insight provide detail on specific in-game trends that result from events such as a red card, a goal, or a substitution with and against the ball.

  • “Skill” combines the cumulative stats of every Bundesliga player to assess their skills: The “Finisher” excels at scoring goals; a “Sprinter” generates high maximum speed and reach on the field; an “Initiator” accumulates assists; and, a “Ball Winner” creates turnovers.

  • Fans have a few metrics that follow style of play, but no metric highlights a key match metric: how quickly a team regains possession after losing the ball. Bundesliga Match Fact Ball Recovery Time automatically tracks team possession of the ball and instantly measures the time it takes to regain possession.

  • Fans will now be able to see the positioning of a team’s players on the pitch and gain insight into the team’s intended playing style. Average Positions provides new insights based on analysis performed on data captured from tracking a player’s average location on the field, which is then displayed in real-time. This allows viewers to identify the current momentum on the field and understand tactical changes. The new statistic will help pinpoint if a team is setting up in an attacking or defending style, pressing up the middle, or utilizing the wings. 

  • With xGoals, or Expected Goals, the Bundesliga can now assess the probability of a player scoring a goal when shooting from any position on the field. The goal probability is calculated in real-time for every shot to give viewers insight into the difficulty of a shot and the likelihood of a goal.

  • Speed Alert displays how fast a player can sprint at any given time during a match, as well as help provide a ranking of players by comparing the maximum speed between players, teams, seasons, and all-time Bundesliga records. Speed Alert provides the 500 million Bundesliga fans from across 200-plus countries worldwide an engaging way to validate their assumptions on who some of the fastest players are.

  • "Which team wins the match?“ is arguably the most prominent question of each football match. Win Probability shows how the chances of winning change depending on the course of the game. Significant changes in the Win Probability are made visible by a corresponding graphic.

  • Have you ever wondered just how fast a shot from your favorite Bundesliga player travels? The newly introduced Bundesliga Match Fact (BMF) Shot Speed now allows fans insights into the incredible power and speed behind shots. Shot speed is more than just a number; it's a window into the awe-inspiring athleticism and skill of the Bundesliga players. 

  • Passing Profile helps fans understand how players think and decide where to pass the ball. It also provides deeper insights into the pass quality and pass strength of players and teams, including which passing decisions they prioritize, such as an offensive pass, passing the ball back, or opening up play with a long ball. 

  • Teams score more than a quarter of all goals from set pieces like free kicks and corner kicks. “Set Piece Threat” computes threat values for offense and defense situations to show how much of a threat a team is with their set pieces, and how good they are at defending them.

  • Pressure Handling is a further development of the Most Pressed Player BMF and adds a quality component to the number of significant pressure situations a player in ball possession finds himself in. The new Bundesliga Match Fact aims to evaluate the performance of a frequently pressed player using different metrics. Central KPI is the Escape Rate which indicates how often a player resolves pressure situations successfully by keeping the possession for his team.

  • Shot Efficiency, compares the actual number of goals that a player or team has scored with the cumulative value from Expected Goals (xGoals)—an existing Bundesliga Match Fact—which is the number of goals the player or team should have scored based on the quality of their attempted shots.

APPLYING MACHINE LEARNING TO THE DATA

By using AWS’s broad range of cloud-based machine learning capabilities, Bundesliga is providing deeper insights in the game. 

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