Opta Sportsdata

Opta Sportsdata, currently operating as part of Stats Perform, stands as a foundational entity in the sports analytics market. The company, originally named Opta Index Limited, was established in 1996 and initially focused on analyzing Premier League football matches for Sky Sports' broadcasts. A significant development in its early history was its acquisition in 1999 by the internet betting service Sports Internet Group, which was subsequently bought by Sky Group. Sky later sold Opta to Sportingstatz Limited, a data service co-founded by Aidan Cooney. A pivotal moment arrived in 2006 when Opta introduced a real-time data collection process for football, setting the stage for expansion into various other sports. This led to its entry into the U.S. market in 2011 through a partnership with Major League Soccer. The company was acquired by Perform Group in 2013 for approximately £40 million. Subsequently, in 2019, Vista Equity Partners acquired Perform Group and merged it with STATS LLC, creating the current parent company, Stats Perform.

Opta's business revolves around the collection, analysis, and distribution of detailed sports data. Its clientele is diverse, encompassing broadcasters, media outlets, betting companies, sports leagues and federations, and professional teams. The company generates revenue by supplying these clients with its data through various means, including feeds, APIs, and widgets. While specific pricing is often negotiated on a case-by-case basis, the business model is effectively a data-as-a-service (DaaS) subscription, providing tailored data solutions to meet client requirements. The firm serves a global market, with a strong presence in Europe and North America.

The core of Opta's service is its comprehensive sports data platform, which covers over 30 sports across 70 countries. Data is collected in real-time by a combination of human analysts and artificial intelligence, capturing up to 2,000 data points per football match. This hybrid data collection process ensures a high degree of accuracy and detail. The product suite includes a range of data feeds that can be integrated into client platforms, from live scores and play-by-play commentary to deep historical player and team statistics. For professional teams, Opta provides performance analysis tools like Data Scout, an online database with information on thousands of players, and Video Scout, a portal for tracking match performances. The company has also developed advanced metrics and predictive analytics, leveraging its vast historical database to offer unique insights for team strategy, player recruitment, and fan engagement.

Keywords: sports data, sports analytics, real-time statistics, football data, player performance analysis, sports data feeds, sports AI, broadcast solutions, betting data, media data services, team performance, player scouting, sports technology, performance data, historical sports data, live sports statistics, sports content, sports API, match analysis, sports federations, league data