Every game played in next season’s Danske Bank Premiership in Northern Ireland is to be recorded for analysis and streamed live around the world following a deal struck between the Northern Ireland Football League and Trackchamp a technology partnership between bwin.party digital entertainment and Chyronhego.

The long term deal will see Trackchamp become the League’s first Official Streaming and Data Partner. It will mean the distribution online of more than 250 games providing global reach and international awareness for the clubs, the league, players and sponsors.

The state of the art technology will produce real-time streaming video with graphics and will collect performance data for every Danske Bank Premiership game from the start of next season.

Speed

This will include player speed and distance covered, ball speed, the percentage of possession of each team, and many other statistics that have become a common feature of major tournaments like the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions’ League and the Barclays Premier League.

Clubs themselves will be able to access the video data analytics tool that can help to improve the quality of performance as is the case at the highest levels of the game and increasingly all the way through all sports.

This partnership will also provide up to 20 part-time jobs through the recruitment of independent ‘Match Operators’ who will attend each Premiership and League Cup match throughout the season. They will be responsible for the installation and maintenance of the video capture and streaming technology that will deliver the pictures and data.

Betting

B.Win, one of the partners behind the company is one of the world’s largest online betting companies and it is likely that the games will be streamed live on their betting sites. Even though the numbers of bets may be small it will likely lead to greater calls for football and other sports to get a share of revenue from betting companies.

At present this is complicated by licensing regimes whereby betting companies licensed in particular jurisdictions pay taxes and charges based on their location but this is beginning to change in part at least towards a ‘point of consumption’ basis. In order to advertise and promote within the UK B’Win is likely going to seek a UK license from the start of 2015 and if so bets placed on Northern Irish matches will be subject to the possible introduction in the future of different mechanisms for delivering money back to the sport, as is the case in horse and greyhound racing, albeit on a voluntary basis with the latter.

That though is a subject to be tackled down the line.

Innovative

For now Andrew Johnston, Managing Director of the Northern Ireland Football League was happy to welcome the technology. “Trackchamp is the most innovative project in the area of sports data collection and the fact that we have been able to sign a long-term agreement with them is brilliant news for football in Northern Ireland.”

“Sports data collection and analysis has become vitally important not only for coaches and players, but also for fans who like to know the key statistics relating to their team and players.”

“The NI Football League’s mission is to create a vibrant brand and provide a platform for our clubs to improve their quality and image, enhancing the commercial value of the game to achieve a sound and sustainable financial future. This partnership with Trackchamp goes a long way to helping us achieve this goal.”

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