World Cup expert open to local sports

MANILA, Philippines — A German-based multinational corporation called SAP (Systems, Applications and Products) specializing in enterprise application software with a distinct expertise in sports is ready to explore technological solutions in the Philippines where analytics could provide a breakthrough to enhance performance at the Southeast Asian Games here next year.

SAP was founded in 1972 and has 335,000 clients in 180 countries. It has developed a sports data analytics program that was used by the German national team to win the FIFA World Cup in 2014. SAP became known as the squad’s 12th man.  For the ongoing World Cup in Russia, SAP collaborated with the German Football Association to create two innovative programs – the video cockpit and player dashboard in boosting the Mannschaft’s goal of becoming the first team since Brazil to win back-to-back championships in 56 years. 

“The SAP Sports One application that was developed for the 2014 World Cup was at the heart of game performance organization ... to map game preparation, talent development, scouting and everything to do with player health digitally,” said SAP senior vice president for products and innovation and head of sports and entertainment Fadi Naoum. “Preparing and visualizing the data enabled decisions in the area of sports to be made more effectively, more quickly and more knowledgeably. The solution is applicable for teams as well as individual sportsmen. The more data is available about a sport, the more beneficial will technology be in supporting the analytics and gaining valuable insights. Complex processes in sports make it interesting to run data analysis.”

While SAP has a Philippine office at BGC, it isn’t linked to a local sports team or organization at the moment.  “We’ve observed that the Philippines has various major sports that we have expertise in providing technology solutions to and is a market that represents a huge opportunity to us,” said Naoum. “Across sports, we are always open to having conversations with sports teams and sportsmen on how technology can better optimize their performance.”

Naoum said SAP’s involvement in soccer includes analysis of training and game performance for coaches and players, optimization of game strategies, enhancing the fan experience and optimization of merchandising and ticketing. Other sports where SAP has a direct association include basketball, tennis, Formula 1, sailing and golf.

“SAP is an official sponsor of the NBA and the German basketball club FC Bayern,” said Naoum. “SAP entered its first premium partnership with FC Bayern in 2016. FC Bayern uses SAP Sports One to manage the team and players efficiently and to optimize their performance using analysis data.”

In Russia, the German national team is backed up by two new software features. “The video cockpit is a content hub that merges copious amounts of the team’s live-play videos with match and training information from a variety of sources,” said Naoum. “This enables match analysts and the coaching team to quickly identify patterns and tendencies and craft strategies to address opponents’ potential weaknesses. The coaches have the possibility to add qualitative feedback to their analysis results. The player dashboard provides players with easy access to personalized information and videos from their mobile devices in real time. The two solutions support detailed opponent analysis and analysis of own players’ performance. What SAP has observed is the feedback and communication between player and coach about upcoming opponents is getting more important.”

Germany got off on the wrong foot in Russia, losing its first match to Mexico, 1-0. But Germany stormed back to beat Sweden, 2-1, and will formalize its advance in the World Cup out of Group F with a win over South Korea tomorrow. Germany has compiled four championships and four runner-up and four third-place finishes in 18 World Cup appearances so far.