There's Big Value to Smart Stats

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According to a Financial Times report, Opta Stats Data, a London-based sports statistics company, is to be bought for £40 million by Perform, a digital sports media group. This is significant valuation for a business that is essentially a room of fans and technicians, recording second-by-second data and selling their analysis to media companies and sports bodies. While many sports run basic numbers on the ‘who, what and where’, Opta Stats delivers qualitative information on the ‘how and why’. They can tell you which shot Virat Kohli plays most often off deliveries that are short-pitched on the leg side. Over the last year, both the ICC and the ECB have partnered with the company that reportedly generates £12.5 million in revenues and £1.3 million in operating profits.