Customer Story: SCR Altach

Combining data with traditional and scouting

The use of data analytics to complement the video & more traditional live scouting has become an industry standard.

At SCR Altach, Marc-Andre uses his previous experience as an academy and emerging talent scout for Manchester City and Arsenal alongside his data analytics skills to implement a process that combines the best of both worlds.

With hundreds of interesting players available in the market it is crucial for scouting teams to quickly narrow down their search.

“One of the biggest challenges for a small club like Altach with a limited budget is to be very efficient, but also quick to come to a decision.”

The SciSports Recruitment application not only provides data-driven insights on over 280,000 players across the globe, and our easy to use filters can help users go from a long list of targets to a more manageable short list.

For Marc-Andre, this pre-selection process has been impacted the most through the partnership with SciSports. “It helps us to quickly narrow the number of interesting targets that fulfil our requirements”.

“We then have a quick eye test to watch the potential targets for 15-20 minutes on video to check if the video aligns with the data, before spending more time for deeper analysis,” he adds.

Setting up a data-driven scouting strategy

While the big teams across the world have an extensive in-house data science setup – this is not possible for most clubs. As the Chief Scout, Marc-Andre is responsible for managing the entire scouting department as well as the squad and succession planning.

Together with external consultant Michael Imburgio, Marc-Andre creates a comprehensive overview of potential targets using three main pillars. First, they used SciSports data to develop a unique On-Ball Value model based on the needs of the club.

But while this model can capture the quality of a player on the ball, they were looking for additional objective data for other areas of the scouting process. Here, they make use of SciSports’ SciSkill Index, which is a plus-minus rating that tracks the development of a player’s skill level – from the current to the potential future level.

Lastly, they use SciSports’ industry event-data based Physical Indicators that give an indication of the speed and stamina of a player and thereby create a holistic overview of a player’s skill set. This step gets complimented with additional use of tracking data in order to comprehensively capture the physical ability of a player.

Integrating SciSports metrics through an API

SciSports is a football API supplier for parties searching for specific metrics to integrate into their current toolset.

Our API allows SCR Altach to feed SciSports data directly into their own model, and they can do this without having any data scientists working at the club.

“The SciSports API helps immensely to have a fast and deep analysis of our main markets so we can focus our time on further analysis of identified targets,” says Marc-Andre.

Our reliable and easy to use APIs have allowed him to set up a data-driven process, with custom models tailored to the clubs specific needs.

This innovative approach has them leading the way compared to other clubs with a similar budget, and helps them take the next developmental step in the fight for a better position. Ultimately in football, it’s not how many resources you have – but what you do with those resources that makes the difference.