What’s new for AI in football?

A good team is made of good players, and selecting out the best is not an easy task. Scouting managers invest a lot of time and energy into finding deserving candidates for their club. Recruiting new players from the pool of candidates around the world is a difficult task for clubs and scouts because they lack access to relevant data needed for the evaluation of new talents. Additionally, there are times when aspiring players fail to be discovered due to lack of opportunities resulting from financial scarcity, socio economic constraints, low self-esteem etc. However, a Britain-based corporation named AiScout has come up with a solution based on Artificial Intelligence to tackle this problem.

About AiSCOUT

As the name indicates AiSCOUT is a software application that evaluates a player’s technique, talent, stamina, and overall football skill using video-based artificial intelligence. It enables amateurs to post videos of them playing football which the platform’s artificial intelligence then analyzes using computer vision to give each player a score.

The platform functions on what is known as the Game Intelligence Model, which is a 360-degree method of tracking a player’s speed, agility, acceleration, coordination, and other football-related skills. After downloading the free app that is accessible to anyone anywhere, users are required to complete their profile information. Next, they are to upload a video of them performing eight drills such as passing, shooting and dribbling with objects or cones for the AI to pick up as markers. The system is programmed to pick out key talents by analyzing this video with reference to certain benchmark data gathered from players and clubs around the world. Each person is then given a National Rating Score by the algorithm which ranges from 0 to 2. Based on this value they are scouted into the squad. Generally, a NRS score of 1.5 and above is considered to be among the best. In addition to physical analysis, the system also conducts psychometric and cognitive analysis that helps to measure the player’s grit and determination.

It consists of a control center, a central database, and two mobile applications for generating, collecting, storing, analyzing, and sharing data on a demographic that has never been collected at scale before. With this software, scouts’ connectivity to players increased more than ever, giving them access to hundreds of actionable data points that would have been difficult for them to gather on their own.

Apart from scouting, AiSCOUT can also assist professional athletes in evaluating themselves and understanding of their areas for improvement. It helps to bring together all the information that football clubs would like to see in one location. Though there are a lot of other similar apps in the market, what distinguishes AiSCOUT is the chances it gives the player to produce actual, applicable, benchmarked data using a smartphone without financial or geographical constraints.

Currently this application is being put into use at English Premier League clubs such as Burnley FC and Chelsea FC.

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