Gemini at SABR Analytics and Women in Football Conferences

Over the past couple of weeks, Gemini Sports Analytics has been well-represented at both the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Analytics Conference at Arizona State University in Phoenix, AZ and the Women In Football BeInspired Conference at Wembley Stadium in London! Read below for a bit more on each event.

SABR Analytics Conference, Pheonix AZ

On March 9, Gemini Machine Learning Engineer Amod Sahasrabudhe featured on the Baseball’s Current and Future Application of AI panel at SABR, where the top minds of the baseball analytics community gather to discuss, debate, and share insightful ways to analyze and examine the game of baseball. Here’s a bit about the experience, in Amod’s own words:

“I had the honor and privilege of participating in a panel alongside Joe Rosales, from our data partner SIS, and MLB’s Christopher Bitetto, with Brian Hall serving as our moderator, to discuss baseball's current and future applications of AI. The panel conversation explored the essence of AI, its present utilization within baseball clubs and the league, and potential advancements on the horizon. It was an insightful exchange that showcased the transformative potential of AI and its place in the future of the sport.”

As usual, Amod was fantastic and shared valuable insights with the audience. We can’t wait for his next one!

Women In Football Be Inspired Conference, London

We could not be more proud to have had our Head of Product and champion of women’s sport Ally Brabant speak on the Media, Tech and the Football Business panel at the Women in Football Be Inspired Conference last week, encouraging more women to pursue careers in sports tech and educating the audience about what we do at Gemini.

Watch this clip of Ally in action!

We also enjoyed being part of the many conversations taking place over the two days, especially about women’s soccer, and speaking to teams about generating and properly applying data that will drive the game forward. Ally shares a few words about the conference:

One of the themes from the Women in Football conference that has stuck with me the most is how much the NWSL seems to be looked up to for how women’s teams can grow their commercial base.

It blew my mind how many times Michele Kang and Angel City Football Club (s/o Julie Uhrman) were brought up across the two days and how much they’re looked at as the standard for the European game to follow. David Dein said it best when he said “Angel City is the best of us. They make sure every game is an event, not just a game. They are the gold standard and they only started three years ago.”

I had always thought the WSL had the advantage in growth since teams could benefit from the strong brand identities of their parent clubs, but I’ve come to realize that, while they have the name, WSL teams are often given scraps of the men’s team whereas the NWSL is treated as its own investment (especially recently) and are being very creative in how to grow as a commercial business.

When you go to a women’s game, it’s obvious that the fanbase and energy are different, but that’s never really been quantified before. Nikki Doucet from Women's Professional Game talked about how they’re trying to define what make’s women’s football distinct and how they can use that to grow the WSL and Championship (my data brain is fascinated by this).

If teams can then use that to tap into new audiences, and audiences with a lot of buying power since women are more likely to control household spend, they can unlock huge value. We’ve already seen this with Angel City, who got record-breaking sponsorship deals before the team even took the field. The brands are there, both existing and new brands that weren’t interested in investing in men’s sports.

The panel was sponsored by our friends at Sports Interactive, and also featured their Head of Women’s Football Research, Tina Keech, alongside FPL Content Creator Holly Shand, and CEO of Upshot and Director at Brentford FC, Preeti Shetty.

Coming up next:

Our COO Alec Coughlin will be speaking at DIG South AI Summit in Charleston, SC next week - stay tuned for more!