
WHY THE NFL CHOOSES AWS TO STAT THAT
The vast majority of machine learning (ML) being done in the cloud today is being done on AWS, which is why AWS is the best choice for the NFL to leverage the power of its data through sophisticated analytics. The NFL uses the power of AWS ML to stat that: creating new stats and improving player health and safety, while creating a better experience for fans, players, and teams—all in real time.
Machine Learning
It’s how the NFL can Stat That, using machine learning and data analytics services to boost the accuracy, speed, and insights provided by its Next Gen Stats platform.
Quick Access
Using the business intelligence tool Amazon QuickSight, the NFL is able to gain greater insight while also opening a window for fans, broadcasters, and editorial to engage with data.
Speed
Using Amazon SageMaker to build, train, and run predictive models helped reduce the time to get results from as much as 12 hours to 30 minutes.

STAT THAT TO ENGAGE THE FANS
If there's a play, the NFL can Stat That. The league has built several Machine Learning stats on AWS, each of which relies on different data points. Here are just a few examples. To see more, visit nextgenstats.nfl.com

APPLYING MACHINE LEARNING TO THE DATA
By leveraging AWS’s broad range of cloud-based machine learning capabilities, the NFL is taking how it can Stat That on game-day to the next level—so that fans, broadcasters, coaches, and teams can benefit from deeper insights.


Training data from traditional box score statistics, as well as data collected from the stadium, will run through hundreds of processes within seconds with the output fed into Amazon SageMaker. From there, machine learning models built by the NGS team ingest the data, which continually train and refine the models. The machine learning models are then used or inferenced in real-time during games to generate outputs such as formations, routes, and events.

"We chose AWS because of its combination of advanced cloud offering, powerful machine learning capabilities, and experience operating at the scale we need. By powering Next Gen Stats with AWS, we’ll be able to kick off our [season] with even more impactful and meaningful content, uncovering deeper insights into the game of football than we’ve ever done before."
- Matt Swensson, Vice President, Emerging Products and Technology at the NFL
"We chose AWS because of its combination of advanced cloud offering, powerful machine learning capabilities, and experience operating at the scale we need. By powering Next Gen Stats with AWS, we’ll be able to kick off our [season] with even more impactful and meaningful content, uncovering deeper insights into the game of football than we’ve ever done before."
- Matt Swensson, Vice President, Emerging Products and Technology at the NFL


GOING LONG ON MACHINE LEARNING WITH THE NFL
Want to see the playbook? Read more about the NFL’s machine learning journey, with an introduction from NFL CIO Michelle R. McKenna—and hear from Matt Swensson firsthand how his Next Gen Stats team worked with the AWS Machine Learning Solutions Lab to build, train, and deploy their machine learning models on Amazon SageMaker.

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