KINEXON Becomes World’s First "FIFA Preferred Provider Live Player & Ball Tracking"
The FIFA Quality Programme and KINEXON strengthen and extend their collaboration until 2024. KINEXON´s status now includes also ball tracking. Starting today, KINEXON is the world’s first “FIFA Preferred Provider Live Player & Ball Tracking.”
In 2021, FIFA made KINEXON the “FIFA Preferred Provider Live Player Tracking.” Today, KINEXON is proud to announce the world’s first designation of “FIFA Preferred Provider Live Player & Ball Tracking.”
KINEXON’s player and ball tracking solutions have been successfully validated during FIFA EPTS testing at Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán in Sevilla in September 2021.
A lightweight sensor utilizing both ultra-wideband (UWB) radio frequency and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) is integrated into the ball. As a result, KINEXON provides real-time position and motion data.
The real-time transmission is enabled by KINEXON’s Local Positioning System (LPS) installed around the pitch.
The solution gives the context needed to monitor player and team performance, improve tactical understanding, support officiating, and analyze everything that happens on the field more accurately and quickly than ever before.
The sensor detects ball movements two and three-dimensionally in real-time, centimeter-accurate and with a delay of less than 20 ms.
“With the validation of live player and ball tracking data we are catering to the needs for information of live tracking data systems of the wider football industry. After successful testing of several technologies, we chose to introduce the new ‘FIFA Preferred Provider for Live Player & Ball Tracking’ to offer visibility to these companies in the market for football stakeholders and continue a close collaboration for the next level developments.”
“As FIFA Preferred Provider for Live Player and Ball Tracking our goal is to use state-of-the-art technology to improve the experience for everyone involved without changing the game of football. We are confident that with accurate live ball data the connected ball technology will enable a new age of football analytics and fan experience.”
“The official integration of our ball tracking technology is a milestone. Not only for us, but also for football in general. For the very first time in history, cutting-edge technology becomes part of the centerpiece of the game: the ball.”
What Information Does the Ball Sensor by KINEXON Provide?
With live ball tracking, analysts can assign player data to certain in-game situations. That works thanks to the comprehensive data package the sensor detects and transmits in real-time.
Consequently, we can measure dribbling speed, distance covered, acceleration with the ball, attacking and defending sprints, pass and shot speed, time of possession, passing accuracy and many more.
More sophisticated metrics such as turnovers, ball gains, space control, exact moments of actions like shots or passes and even pressing can also be detected and visualized using KINEXON’s live ball tracking.
Benefits of Live Ball Data for Clubs, Leagues and Federations
Since 2022, live ball tracking technology by KINEXON may also be used in official matches. Already before, several professional teams used the solution for analysis of their training sessions.
The use of technology in match operations offers benefits not only for clubs, but also for leagues, media, fans and associations:
- Tactical analysis: With live ball tracking, coaches can verify their impressions from a match, training session or video session. Combining it with player tracking, coaches can more easily filter out a player’s weakness, such as a lack of accuracy and passing speed. Then, the coaching staff receives specific data to see whether their training and match measures helped to solve the issue. Ball tracking also facilitates video analysis. In the KINEXON Sports App, coaches can systematically search for specific in-game situations such as counters, corners or free kicks.
- Player performance analysis: Player and ball tracking go hand in hand. The former paints the picture of a player’s physical performance, while live ball data add skills to the mix. How does a player react under pressure? How long until he has the ball under control? How many touches does he need to pass to his teammate? By analyzing all these data, coaches can train players to meet the requirements for their playing system.
- Live broadcast visualizations: Metrics such as ball speed or packing have been detected before. KINEXON’s live ball tracking now provides them in real-time, paving the way for high-quality, sophisticated live visualizations within the live broadcast. First examples have just recently been presented at DFL’s Sports Innovation 2022 in Düsseldorf.
- Real-time analysis & match statistics: Not only coaches, but also fans and journalists can get ball data in real-time and can use them for live match analysis. Live visualizations and individual configurations in the software provided by KINEXON facilitate and accelerate the evaluation of the data.
- Fan engagement: In addition to teams, leagues, media partners and broadcasters, fans as well can profit from the ball sensor’s real-time data. Generated data can be used to automatically create high-quality and visually sophisticated content for fans – on all channels. Social media and TV charts give fans deeper insights than ever before.
- Officiating and more: The latency, accuracy and reliability of the sensor integrated in the ball also allow it to be used in officiating whenever real-time information on position and movement of the ball or specific player actions with the ball are needed.
If you want to learn more about the KINEXON live tracking sensor that can be integrated in official match balls, the so-called “connected ball” or ball tracking technology in general, reach out to our experts!
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