A British artificial intelligence firm is "looking to revolutionise the world of sports transfers by designing software that picks out bargain rugby players," according to James Titcomb of the London TELEGRAPH. ASI Data Science has signed a deal with Championship rugby side London Irish to "help it find undiscovered gems by using cutting edge data analysis techniques." While rugby scouting "typically requires looking through hours of footage to assess a player’s ability, the software allows a club to enter the name of a star player and will assess match statistics to find players with similar styles." It looks through around 100 different parameters taken from Opta, the sports data company, "which covers every professional player on the planet, to find players similar to the star that a club would buy if money were no object." ASI CEO Marc Warner described the tool as another level in sports data above the "Moneyball" techniques employed by baseball GM Billy Beane to "gain an advantage against wealthier teams." He said that the tool was "effective in rugby, where budgets are often constrained by salary caps, but that it could be applied to cricket and football as well" (TELEGRAPH, 12/18).
