Last month, Major League Soccer announced a partnership with Second Spectrum to become the league’s first official advanced tracking data provider. Beginning this season, Second Spectrum will provide its proprietary, state-of-the art, optical tracking system for every MLS match.
So what does that mean, exactly?
Second Spectrum captures data on the location of every player, the referees, and the ball 25 times per second. Second Spectrum uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to process the collected data and can calculate a player’s speed, acceleration, deceleration and shot velocity, as well as advanced statistics like passing probability and expected goals, in near real time.