When we saw Bloomberg Sports’ new Front Office 2011 software, we were so impressed we were happy to hosted a happy hour with them in San Fran to show it off to our fellow sports bloggers. It’s fair to say that anyone who has seen a demo or used the product has been nothing short of blown away.
Wrote Baseball Beauties:
The stunning thing about this demo, which included major league pitching coach Rick Peterson (part of the A’s MoneyBall staff, coach with the Brewers last year), was the data drill down available. This is information that until even recently, only teams like the Oakland A’s with their advanced reporting and proprietory analytics could possibly research, compile and report in a sane fashion. Now its available to anybody that owns an ipad/phone.
It’s also worth noting that this is an example that shows that Bloomberg, of all companies, is doing more to innovate on the consumer side of sports than any other company out there (sorry, ESPN and Yahoo). These are the first truly innovative, high-quality technology applications that I have seen come to market and I’m looking forward to seeing others follow Bloomberg’s lead.
Bloggers aren’t the only ones taking notice. Fast Company recently named them the 8th most innovative company in sports. While ESPN may still be #1 – it’s good to see Bloomberg’s efforts breaking through the noise and deservedly gaining attention.
08 / Bloomberg Sports
For crunching the numbers differently. Targeting teams and fans hungry for in-depth statistical analysis, Bloomberg last year launched online tools in baseball and football that capitalize on its expertise in data evaluation and visualization. The company sees a sports team like an investment portfolio: the deeper a user’s understanding of how each component is performing, the more informed his trades are, be they real or fantasy-league. Last year, 28 out of 30 MLB teams used Bloomberg’s software, performing pitch-by-pitch analysis on individual batters – and incorporating the count, pitch type, location, and more.
