Sevilla FC, represented by Elías Zamora, the Director of the Data Department, held a meeting with international media at LaLiga headquarters in Madrid. A session that took place last weekend in which the club showcased its commitment to technological development and innovation. The strategy pursued by the organization has been pivotal in the sporting successes achieved during the 21st century and has been diversifying it into other areas of the football business.
With the title Sevilla FC: A Benchmark in Innovation and Data Area Development, LaLiga highlighted Sevilla FC’s performance as a success example in these fields, where it has become an international reference in the world of football. Elías Zamora explained the complexity of the football business model and how the acquisition and interpretation of objective data-based information can aid economic growth: “We aim, through technology, innovation, and Big Data, to extract valuable information to create new products and services that can generate economic income from various sources”.
The club’s already developed technological projects were brought to light and sparked the interest of all the media representatives present, hailing from three different continents. These are the cases of ‘AiFootball’, ‘AiScouting’, ‘AiRadar’ -to detect early talent in other leagues through technical and tactical parameters adapted to the philosophy of Sevilla FC -, ‘AiTicketing’ -that allows predicting attendance at upcoming matches based on their previous behavior -, ‘AiFans’ and ‘AiSponsoring’. Furthermore, ‘Transfer Tracker’, a project developed in collaboration with LaLiga Tech following an initial prototype conducted at Sevilla FC called ‘AiTracking’ and has been a worldwide success.
In this technology conference, Miguel Ángel Leal, Director of the Office of Technology and Innovation at LaLiga, and José Luis Quintero, Head of Customer Success at LaLiga Tech, also participated. Both of them discussed the technology they use in their fight against piracy, the evolution of Mediacoach, which helps minimize the risk of injury in football, the OTT LALIGA+, and the technological aspect of LaLiga Impulso, aimed at accelerating the development of clubs to increase their profits.
The Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán has become a luxurious venue for hosting events of
all kinds. An ideal setting that provides opportunities for hosting training
sessions for various courses offered by Sevilla FC through its Innovation
Center every year. Just this week, the Sevilla FC stadium hosted the final day
of the Master’s in Sports Journalism organized in collaboration with the
University of Seville and another in-person session for the Master’s in Big
Data applied to Football Scouting, sponsored in conjunction with the University
of Murcia and the Sports Data Campus.
The latter is one of the flagship programs offered by the club in its
continuous collaboration with universities, adding significant value to the
Sevilla FC brand. The Master’s in Big Data applied to Football Scouting has
already completed four editions with over 200 students who have honed their
skills and been able to grow professionally in a sector that includes sports
directors, analysts, and scouts. During this visit to the Sánchez-Pizjuán, held
on Thursday, students from both the third edition, who received their
respective diplomas, and the fourth edition, which began in March and will
conclude in 2024, participated. Professionals from various departments of
Sevilla FC, a national and international reference in data usage and
technological development applied to football, were the ones conducting the
training sessions. The special guest was the new Sporting Director of Sevilla
FC, Víctor Orta, who had already participated in previous editions as a global
reference in the field.
The following day, it was the turn of the Master’s in Sports Journalism,
marking the completion of its tenth academic year. Organized by the Faculty of
Communication at the University of Seville, through the Center for Permanent
Training, and sponsored by Sevilla FC, this master’s program concluded with a
keynote address by Ismael Medina, a journalist from Movistar. The event took
place in the press room of the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, named after the
illustrious sports journalist José Antonio Sánchez-Araújo.
Attending the event were Pastora Moreno, the program’s director, Enrique
López, the director of Continuing and Complementary Education at the University
of Seville, and the club’s vice president, Fernando Carrión, who highlighted
the club’s commitment to the media. He stated, “Sevilla FC has always
understood the importance of walking hand in hand with communication, hence the
firm commitment, since the beginning of this century, to have a robust
Communication Department, in line with the entity, growing with it and
sensitive to new technologies and the current digitization of information. It
is a source of pride for us to collaborate with the Faculty of Communication
through this master’s program from its inception, training journalists.”
Furthermore, the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán not only serves as a luxurious
“classroom” for its own courses and master’s programs but is also
regularly chosen by LaLiga Business School to host special sessions for many of
its academic offerings. If there was a visit from students of the Master’s in
Sports Law in April and students from Hong Kong in May, these days saw the
visit of students from the Master’s in Management, Methodology, and Analysis in
Football.
These students had the opportunity to explore the inner workings of the club
and its management in various areas and departments: youth academy recruitment
– led by David Martín Valle, a scout for the lower categories of Sevilla FC –
sports management – led by Fermín Galeote, a member of that department – and
data usage for scouting by Jesús Olivera, the Data Football manager at the
club.
