CHICAGO and NEW YORK – January 19, 2015 – The NBA and STATS LLC today announced an expansion of their long-standing partnership that will provide media outlets around the world with an opportunity to use much of the same STATS SportVU Player Tracking data used by NBA teams for scouting, player development and training.
As the Official Player Tracking Partner of the NBA, STATS SportVU data will now be used by ESPN, NBA on TNT, and Bleacher Report. The data will also be made available to other media outlets around the globe to provide fans with more insight into lineups, substitutions, and play calling, as well as analysis on player and team performance including shooting, passing, and rebounding. Previously, the NBA’s SportVU data was only available to NBA teams and through NBA Digital assets.
The NBA began using STATS SportVU in 2009 and in 2013 became the first U.S. professional sports league to use player tracking for every game.
STATS SportVU – a system of six high-resolution cameras and STATS’ leading-edge computer vision technology – will continue to be used in-arena by all 30 NBA teams during games to track and measure the movements of all players and the ball on the court. The system provides real-time and innovative statistics based around speed, distance, player separation, and ball possession for comprehensive analysis of players and teams.
“We look forward to taking our partnership with the NBA to the next level by making STATS SportVU data available to media outlets around the world,” said Jordan Rosen, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategic Partnerships at STATS. “By making available a robust set of innovative data, we can provide a more sophisticated level of analytics to NBA fans across a rapidly growing number of platforms.”
“This expanded partnership with STATS will give fans new opportunities to access SportVU’s groundbreaking statistical information across numerous media outlets, allowing them to deepen their understanding of our game,” said NBA Executive Vice President, Operations and Technology Steve Hellmuth.
Throughout the year, NBA TV, NBA.com and the NBA App will continue to use STATS SportVU player tracking data to deliver the most comprehensive statistical breakdown of every game. The NBA and STATS originally partnered in 2006.