Sport’s data journalism is on the rise, and this article will show you all the places to find the best data resources to improve your work!
Since the start of the millennium, a data revolution has spread across the world of sport. Now, in 2020, in differing ways, every sport relies on data to assess and predict performance. For example, Sean Ingle highlighted how a Danish football team, FC Midtyjylland, became the “poster child” of this data revolution in football and how their methods have caused a domino effect on other top European clubs.
Naturally, as data has begun to dominate sport, data journalism is becoming both more prevalent and popular. As a result of this trend, there are increasing amounts of sport’s data resources for journalists to utilise in order to create high quality content for your followers. This article will look at some of the most popular sports across Britain and highlight the best places to find data for absolutely free.
FOOTBALL
Despite football being one of the most popular sports across Britain, several football data websites often charge you to use their resources. However there are numerous Twitter pages that post data publicly and regularly for anyone to use! The first point of call is undoubtedly @OptaJoe, who reports on all English football (@OptaJean for French football, @OptaJose for Spanish football, @OptaPaolo for Italian football etc – you get the idea!). The Twitter page posts regular statistics, graphics and even posts articles with the latest ‘data insights’ on football from that weekend. It is an absolute must follow for all data journalists looking to write about football.
GOLF
Particularly after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, golf has soared in popularity throughout 2020 with more people showing interest in the sport in Britain. Data Golf provides an array of unique statistics to give alternative perspectives on professional and amateur golf. According to the site, they use a combination of applied statistics, data visualisations as well as creating models to predict the outcomes of different tournaments such as the Masters below.
TENNIS
The IBM SlamTracker is the ultimate resource for tennis lovers, providing real-time scores, statistics and point-by-point analysis. Whilst its home website only details statistics for the US Open, it collaborates with other Grand Slam Tournaments to provide a plethora of free cutting edge data. As well as giving the more ‘typical’ data such as numbers of aces, winners and unforced errors, the company gives detailed insights such as depth of serve and distance/point. By using the abundance of data at their exposure, the SlamTracker can offer visualisations for which opponent may have the winning momentum during a match.
RUGBY
The ESPN scrum website is the ultimate “stats guru” for rugby. The website boasts a record of every single test match ever as well as individual records of all the players that have ever set foot on the pitch. By using the “stats guru” tool on the site, you can submit a request about any player or team that has played in history. This tool will then give all the stats on your player including, tries, conversions, win percentages and many more.
ATHLETICS
Whilst we may still be longing for our fix of athletics after missing out on both the London marathon and the Tokyo Olympics this year, the Power of 10 website still remains the website of all athletics data. The site includes the records of times of all past athletics events since records began on the athletes, coaches and clubs. You can use the search function to find the data on the person or club you desire which is presented in a clear and concise way.
