A few weeks ago, we had a fun conversation with Roman Tirone, who is helping lead the charge with ZEDRun and virtual horse racing’s success here in the United States and it made us ask a bigger question about the value of predictive data as it can apply to virtual sports, or even matchups in traditional sports that fans always ask about, but never could have happened historically. The always fun “What if”?
While the conversation with Tirone did involve virtual sports to build outside of horse racing…boxing is the one which comes to mind (building a training regimen for a virtual boxer, taking in his or her diet, looking at his or her style, size and weight and then having you boxer fight against others for virtual titles, how great could that be in ANY discipline…think MMA even…for real dollars and investment like ZEDRun has done)…the use of established predictive data to build out scenarios in any sport is really intriguing.
The best example of “What’s If’s” is something w have been helping our friends with Strat-o-matic for in the past year. The decades- old company based on Long Island has reinvented themselves in the past year because of the wealth of accurate predictive historical data they have in almost all US team sports, and it builds out a very realistic and fun simulation model that came very close to real for both the World Series AND the NBA Finals last year. So, we took that “What If” idea to media types and platforms to help play out scenarios across sport if the matchups would have happened. Two that have gone well have been with NBC Sports Boston and Marquee Network, playing out predictive models from the past that created debate with their experts, many of whom are former players who actually participated in the games being talked about, only with different outcomes. “What if” Tom brady doesn’t leave the Patriots? “What if” Steve Bartman doesn’t touch the ball and the Cubs have a chance to move on from that game? The list of possibilities from games real, or even imagined (What if the best Negro Leagues team played the 1929 Yankees in a series?) is almost endless, and while the fan debate is always great, the use of accurate, predictive data makes the outcomes “Virtually Real.”
How real? To the point where, as sports gambling becomes even more of a key factor in revenue in sport, that data can be used to create safe and secure scenarios that maybe down the road there can be betting lines, just like you have in virtual horse racing now. The trove of matchups is endless, and the results can spark debate, interest and conjecture around games that we would have liked to have seen but never could have, bringing the past almost literally to life. The beauty of what Strat has at their fingertips is the detail with which they put into it, along with the speed that results can be generated. You can have detail down to the pitch or the shot, and run seasons in days, so you have detailed snapshots to enjoy without having to wait for months for actual results, all literally at your fingertips.
Oh, and by the way, the use of all this predictive data…by sport, by team, by athlete, by city…also could make for fun anthologies and collections, should the value add be seen by some of the great print storytellers of our time. How about a series of “Simulation Station” for any fans matchup, played out in detail and with great color by writers or visual storytellers who love the intriguing ideas of matchups that could have happened, and now can unfold across pages…or in video…and how bout the interest in education such matchups may bring when tied to growth areas like STEM for kids, explaining how predictive data can bring out realistic and potentially accurate outcomes.
Fantasy becomes reality again, and as we dive deeper into analytics, a new revenue stream and most importantly, engagement point for fans, is born. Watch, play and listen, hopefully you may learn and have fun.
