Israeli entrepreneurs present a new data analysis system which they say
provides a deeper insight of players and referees behaviour. 

RISHON LEZION, ISRAEL (RECENT) (REUTERS )

Ever wonder how accurately Ronaldinho passes the ball during
a match? Are you curious how far the Liverpool or Milan players run during the
half? Don't you want to know how far Beckham can really bend it?
    For stat-crazed fans who want deeper insight into their favourite sport
and a way to better understand it, a new system developed in Israel may be the
answer.
    'Sportvu' is an Israeli start up company that has developed a system
which they claim allows broadcasters to display such never-before seen
statistics during televised matches.
    "What the system is actually doing is allocating the players in a
real-time mode, and give an output to either the fans, or the broadcasters, or
the data company that use the data in terms of the positioning of the players.
From that we can extract the speed. We can extract the distance that the
players were running. We can give the time holding the ball. We can give good
passes, bad passes, good tackles, bad tackles," said Shimon Katzubes,
'Sportvu's' Vice President marketing and sales.
    The new system creates a multiple-angle animated replay of the action
and a computer-generated image of the pitch, showing in real-time the position
and movement of all players - even in areas where television cameras do not
cover.
    Data is gathered using three fixed cameras to capture the pitch.
Advanced algorithms continuously track the movement of all players, the
referees, and the ball.
    The system also provides colourful on-screen graphics illustrating each
player's performance by showing the viewer the distance each of player runs, a
map of the area they cover, how many times they sprint, and even how
accurately each has passed the ball.
    All of the stats, and many others, can also be combined and applied for
each team as a whole during and after the match to help commentators bring the
game to life for the spectator.
     "The main idea is that to put more information into the field,
more information to the people watching the game and the coaches. Now the fans
become more and more sophisticated, they want to understand more about the
players fitness or how they play the game. They want to go a little bit into
the coach's head and to see maybe the view from the tactical point," said
Gal Oz who heads 'Sportvu'.
    The graphics shown include pie charts breaking down the team's walking,
running, and sprinting; histograms of average speed by the minute; and a
"heat map" illustrating where a team concentrated their game,
indicating the offensive or defensive effort by the sides.
    Experts say the system can be beneficial not only for television
broadcasters and audiences but for scouts and coaches as well. They say that
coaches and scouts who until now had to travel to matches and who relied on
stop-watches and clip-boards to analyse players and teams, could now, with
high reliability and speed, get all that with low operating costs.
    Despite the the system being developed mainly for live television,
Sportvu's marketing chief Shimon Katzubes says the system's true potential
actually lies with the the raw data that is produced which is now in great
demand.
   "We found that the data that we generated, which is secondary...
are the main issues, ok, and that's when we shifted towards the data
market," Katzubes said.
    "We are going to change the way football is being played and
football is being watched and football is being coached," he added.
    This market includes data-gathering firms who provide statistics to
wire services, print and Internet outlets, and especially fantasy leagues and
sports betting companies.
    Looking into the future, Sportvu's executives says the system will not
be limited to only soccer, but is well on the way to tackling rugby, and
stat-based sports such as baseball and American football.
    But despite the natural wish to capitalize on this great potential,
both Oz and Katzubes agree that the small 10 people start-up founded by
ex-military officers should not be over-eager with its ambitions.
    Sportvu's systems are already being used by broadcasters in Latin
America, Europe and Israel.