The NBA has unveiled a new statistical online service that allows fans to slice and dice all player and game history for the last 66 years. Going back to the inception of the League, the data covers every play ever made and offers insight into the current stats and analytics as well as those of years gone by.
SAP has partnered with the NBA official website and launched the stats service to allow fans to instantly analyze and cross-reference game data that has been collected from every game since 1947. Generally, large data and analytics projects are an exercise in computer science and the results are not available for general consumption, however, in this case, the NBA analytics online service changes all that.
NBA CIO Michael Gliedman says the project aims to provide fans with access to every box score, advanced shooting charts, in-depth statistical breakdowns identifying clutch, possession, efficiency and team and player comparisons amongst other advanced features. The idea of the service is to offer an immersive online experience that allows fans access to individual and team statistics for every play in NBA history.
Gliedman hopes that the NBA will support as many as 4.5 quadrillion queries from fans, as there are simply so many permutations of each query that can be submitted. The NBA has been looking for an option to provide fans with this data for years, but with the development of the SAP system they are now able to do so.
The analytics service is intended to integrate with fans’ use of social media whilst they simultaneously watch games. Gliedman firmly believes that fans want to engage in digital conversation and research whilst the game is on and he is capitalizing on the dual-screen use of many fans. Fans can watch the game on their TV whilst using their mobile to check stats as the service is fully optimized for mobile platforms.
The release of this advanced analytics program shows how huge amounts of data are heading into the mainstream and NBA fans are now able to access the history of the game at the touch of a button.