Gemini Sports Analytics - April Newsletter
Gemini Sports Analytics - April Newsletter
Welcome back to our monthly newsletter! Here is what’s been going on at Gemini:
Will Ventures Investment
We had a lot going on in April, but one big highlight is the investment from Will Ventures, which brings our total number of sports team ownership stakes among our investors to 27 and allows us to hire technical leadership and customer support! In addition to their financial investment, Will Ventures are committed to our long-term success, providing strategic guidance tailored to our unique challenges and opportunities and the hands-on support and resources needed to continue bringing our vision to life. Will Ventures embodies the ideal partner for Gemini Sports Analytics thanks to our shared vision of harnessing innovation to drive transformative change in the sports industry, and we are so excited for our partnership with them going forward - read more about it below!
NFL-Specific Proof Of Concept (POC)
Ahead of the NFL Draft on April 25th, we introduced our NFL-specific POC! Our latest product innovation allows NFL teams to combine qualitative insights from scouting reports with quantitative data from Player Performance and Tracking Systems via 3 of the most important NFL datasets: PFF, Telemetry Sports, and NGS. In doing so, we enable intangibles to become as easily measured as tangibles, which significantly upgrades the quality of how NFL teams make critical decisions, like those made for the NFL Draft.
For more about the POC and how we leverage our technology to drive this capability, check out our LinkedIn post!
If you’re part of an NFL team and want to learn more about this, get in touch!
New Feature Release: Hyper-Parameter Tuning & Soccer Corners Template
We released the ability for users of our application to manually tune hyper-parameters of their models in either R or Python so that they can fine-tune project outputs to fit their needs in full detail. We also published a new interactive mini-app within our product using Machine Learning to estimate shot and goal probabilities based on player positions at a corner kick.
Read more about them from Gemini Head of Product Ally Brabant below:
Raleigh-Durham Startup Week
We love being based in Raleigh as a part of the Triangle tech startup ecosystem, and were excited to have the opportunity to participate in Raleigh-Durham Startup Week at Raleigh Founded, where our office is located! Over the four days, we gained valuable advice on strategic decision-making, product development, and team building; new insights on aligning strategies with company culture and setting clear goals; and tips for how to best meet customer needs. We can’t wait for more events like these as we continue to establish ourselves in this environment!
Business of Women’s Sport Conference
COO Alec Coughlin and Head of Product Ally Brabant traveled to New York for the Business of Women's Sports Summit, a completely sold out event solely about women’s sports!
Here are Ally’s main takeaways:
The profound emotional connection to women’s sports fosters intense loyalty among fans and a strong bond between fans and athletes, which former soccer player Samantha Mewis likened to to celebrity fandom.
The startling revelation that only 6% of sports science data pertains specifically to female athletes, highlighting the need for a paradigm shift in how research is conducted to better cater to the unique needs of female athletes, like initiatives led by the Washington Spirit.
The importance of storytelling and activation in engaging fans and brands, stressing that merely acquiring data isn't sufficient: Teams and leagues must leverage it effectively to craft compelling narratives and make informed decisions, a goal supported by the development of tools like Gemini.
Read Ally’s full recap here!
You can also watch Alec and Ally’s Fireside Chat recap of the event.
We had a lot of fun filming a quick conversation with Alec and Ally about the importance of women’s sports and being at events like this one - teaser below!
The Gemini Team
We are so excited to introduce Sam Eaton as our new Customer Success Lead, who joined the team last month!
Sam brings a wealth of professional sports experience, having spent over a decade in the Front Office of MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks, where he held a number of roles. Most recently, he served as Director of Baseball Operations, gaining an intimate understanding of the short and long-term demands on professional sports organizations, while focusing on roster management, player acquisition, salary arbitration, rules and regulations, and budget management.
Sam is a lifelong fan of baseball, football, and all University of Texas Athletics, and will be joining us in Raleigh with his wife and one-year-old daughter.
Welcome to Gemini, Sam!
🎙 Winning With Data Podcast
Our podcast continues with new episodes featuring exciting guests each week from the world of AI, data, and sports! Here are some episodes you may have missed this month:
Bridging Finance and Sports with Matt Ober
Beyond the Code: How AI Transformed a Data Scientist's Game with Seth Stephens Davidowitz
Touchpoints and Trust: Building Data Culture in Sports with Mathieu Lacome and Sudarshan Gopaladesikan
From Field Notes to Future Wins: Leveraging Unstructured Data in Sports with Matthew Lynley
If you or someone you know is an expert in any of the areas covered on our podcast, let us know - we’d love to have you as a guest!
Gemini in the Media
Founder and CEO Jake Schuster was a guest on Gemini advisor Zack Scott’s podcast! Click below to watch a clip from the episode.
Looking Ahead: May
CEO Jake Schuster and Business Development Manager Flavio Fusi will be at IMPECT INSIGHTS 2024 in Cologne, Germany on May 7th and 8th! Connect with them if you’ll be there too.
COO Alec Coughlin and Sales Manager Chris Carrieri will be in Chicago for the NBA Draft Combine on May 14th and 15th - get in touch if you’d like to meet them there!
Stay tuned for more in the next newsletter and watch this space for some big news coming out next week!