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Leagues and Governing Bodies

NHL skates ahead in technology revolution

An enhanced puck and player tracking system could change the sport for teams, fans and businesses

The league tested the system that gathers real-time data that could be used in coaching, social media and other areas at two Golden Knights games.courtesy of the nhl

Despite all the sweeping changes the sports landscape has undergone in recent decades, pro hockey players are still judged primarily on two basic statistics: goals and assists.

The NHL’s new player and puck tracking system, tested for the first time in regular-season play last week, promises to radically change that and many other fundamental ways the sport is consumed and understood by fans, teams and players alike. The tests occurred in Las Vegas at two Golden Knights games played during the 2019 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show that annually serves as a key global gathering for technology executives.

The new chip-based tracking system, developed by the league with the aid of six technology firms (see chart), will generate an array of new real-time measures for ice hockey including skater speed and distance, acceleration, puck deflections, shift lengths and many more.

The efforts last week in Las Vegas built upon prior tests during the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and the 2018 NHL All-Star Game. There will be more experimentation later this month during the All-Star Game in San Jose in preparation for a wider rollout during the 2019-20 NHL season.

“We believe this is the beginning of something very special for us and something that will bring in a whole new understanding and level of transparency to our sport,” said Peter DelGiacco, NHL chief technology officer, who has been a lead executive on the project along with David Lehanski, senior vice president of business development and global partnerships.

NHL TRACKING TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS

Beyond Sports: Artificial intelligence and data visualization

Genius Sports: Real-time betting products based around advanced data

Swish Analytics: Real-time betting analysis, content, statistics and odds

Trigger: Augmented and mixed reality experiences

Vizrt: Data visualization and storytelling, graphics rendering

WSC Sports: Artificial intelligence-powered video platform

The player and puck tracking is expected to help usher in a statistical revolution that thus far has been generally lacking in hockey but has already transformed sports like baseball and basketball. Key NHL TV partners NBC and Rogers will be prominent users of the new tracking data during national game broadcasts.

The technology and vast amounts of new data it will spin off is also expected to serve as a key unpinning for other NHL efforts around legal sports wagering, augmented reality, social media content development, and many other emerging technologies.

“We see this opening up an entirely new level of fan engagement for hockey, and being really impactful,” said Chris Dougan, chief communications officer for Genius Sports and a key figure in the British sports data company’s U.S. expansion. The company participated in last week’s tracking demo and has developed a prototype mobile application for betting around hockey that relies heavily on graphics and data visualization.

A crucial part of the NHL’s efforts has been the development of a puck that performs just like a normal one under all stress and temperature scenarios, but carries an embedded chip with technology such as an accelerometer. Player tracking, meanwhile, will be achieved through small chips embedded in a player’s shoulder pads, not unlike what the NFL has done in recent seasons with Zebra Technologies.

Specific costs for the NHL’s tracking effort have not been disclosed, but Lehanski said it extends into the many millions of dollars when considering the multiyear time span the league has committed to the project. The NHL has also been in regular contact with the NHL Players’ Association on its tracking efforts, but specific rules are still being developed around the deployment of player data both publicly and for internal coaching and roster development purposes.

Lehanski and other league executives envision a scenario in the near future where a Moneyball-type revolution has swept through hockey and player performance is judged in much deeper ways.

“This is going to spin off all sorts of data we’ve simply never seen before in hockey,” Lehanski said. “That’s a really exciting prospect for us.”

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