Newsletter - October 2023

We had an exciting October, and we wanted to share with you some of things going on at Gemini!

GSA Webinar

We opened the month with our first-ever webinar, hosted by Gemini Machine Learning Engineer Amod Sahasrabudhe, on how to leverage StatsBomb data within the Gemini application to understand a new gravity metric. We were thrilled that it exceeded all expectations!

Building on the previous work we have done to create brand awareness and evolve our strategy, we generated more than 200 leads - up from the fewer than five new “good” inbound leads we averaged in the previous two months. These included some of the biggest names from four of the “Big Five” world soccer leagues (Premier League, Serie A, La Liga and the Bundesliga) and the NFL, as well as The FA and US Soccer.

We like to think about the future too, so we were really pleased to see representation from those we hope will be part of the next generation to help implement our product as they move up in their careers, including many students and members of women’s soccer and lower tier soccer teams, from the likes of the Dutch Second Division, the English National League, The Frauen-Bundesliga (German Women's First Division), Liga F (Spanish Women's First Division), and the Azerbaijan Premier League.

Some key takeaways as noted by our Head of Product, Ally Brabant:

1) Teams can create edge by seeing the same data differently: “Score more goals to win” is the obvious answer, but it’s often hard to directly impact as a data practitioner. Organizations that go beyond first order thinking (focusing on those that take the shots and score goals) to dig deeper into what’s less obvious - focusing on the players that create the environment for those events to happen in the first place - have a great ability to understand the root causes of patterns and create more levers for themselves to pull to influence team behavior.

2) Applying this new scouting metric could lead to competitive advantage: Modern sports organizations have an opportunity to develop an edge by introducing scouting metrics that values the players that drive more / better chances for their teammates in a way that might not be apparent when using traditional tools, but would be quite obvious to those using StatsBomb + Gemini.

3) Learning opportunities: It seems like there is a fair amount of demand for learning more about how sporting organizations can apply complex Machine Learning algorithms, which we hope to dig into in our next webinar.

Our favorite quote: “Within the beautiful game of football, it’s all about managing space. Good teams will exploit the space that is left by their opposition and sometimes are very good at attracting opponent players.” -Amod

You can watch the webinar back on our YouTube channel (top tip: jump to 6:47 to watch Amod bring takeaways #1 and #2 to life)!

Make sure to stay tuned for info on future webinars!?We hope to have another coming soon.

StatsBomb Conference

The following week we traveled to London and paid a visit to Wembley Stadium for the 2023 Hudl Statsbomb Conference, which we sponsored. Those present heard from expert speakers, including CEO Jake Schuster, about the latest cutting-edge research in the sports analytics industry (which includes Gemini, of course!).

In case you missed our original announcement, this summer we became one of the founding members of global soccer data provider StatsBomb’s new Partner Program. StatsBomb data is now engineered and available to all mutual clients in the Gemini application!

New Team Members

We also made a massive four new hires in October, in particular a C-level addition to the team in COO Alec Coughlin! Alec, who has been a longtime advisor to GSA, brings a passion for and a wealth of experience in sport and AI, along with brilliant ideas on how to integrate deep tech with business strategy to enable people and companies to perform at their best.

Stephanie Modica joined as Head of Data Experience & Design from Visa, where she was Staff Design Engineer, Data Experience, and was influential in the development of their many data products, including the AI/ML platform and blockchain visualizer. At Gemini, she will serve as the connective tissue between our data science and engineering teams and our customers, translating complexity into intuitive design. She is most excited about increasing the speed to insight for our customers.

James Young has come on board as Head of?Football?/ Head of EMEA, following his role as Head of Analysis & Data at Sunderland for the last three years. He arrives with a proven track record in performance analytics consultancy, undertaking senior roles with Stats Perform and Deloitte prior to moving to Wearside, and success across football, rugby and a range of Olympic disciplines and other sports since 2009. In addition to the heights he reached with Sunderland, James worked with Saracens during their Gallagher Premiership and Heineken Cup successes, and with Team GB as they collected five Olympic gold medals. All together he has won 35 medals with 10 different teams.

Finally, Nikki Davidson becomes Gemini’s first Marketing Manager, with several years of experience in social media, marketing and digital content?strategy roles at brands and agencies in sport, and as a consultant to brands, companies and non-profits across a range of industries. She is looking forward to highlighting the exciting work we are doing and everything you should know about us and our product.

Don’t forget to watch this space for updates on what’s happening next at GSA!