Teamworks has strengthened its position in elite football with the acquisition of Pro Football Focus’ enterprise data analytics platform. PFF’s consumer-facing business will remain distinct and will now license the foundational data metrics from Teamworks.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed; PFF CEO Cris Collinsworth and the firm’s investors -- including Silver Lake and Western & Southern -- will become shareholders in Teamworks. Collinsworth is now also an advisor to Teamworks. PFF used LionTree Advisors LLC for the transaction.
PFF provides football coaches and analysts unique insights and context, such as data labels on when the quarterback threw under pressure, what route the receiver ran and even what stance a pass rusher was in at the time of the snap. PFF is used by all 32 NFL teams and more than 240 NCAA Division I programs. It is Teamworks’ 14th acquisition and 10th in the last three years. Wide Left first reported last month on the prospect of PFF’s acquisition.
Teamworks will now vertically integrate PFF data into the platforms of prior acquisitions such as Zelus Analytics, Telemetry Sports and Sportlogiq to better develop predictive models.
“Having that PFF data definitely unlocks new possibilities for us,” Karim Kassam, VP/Teamworks Intelligence, told SBJ, noting that the combination of Next Gen Stats in the NFL and Sportlogiq’s computer vision tech at the college level means player tracking data is available at the elite levels of the sport.
“The algorithms we use, the AI we use, it can do incredible things,” he added. “But to turn that player movement into insights that can actually be used by coaches and scouts requires football context, requires football knowledge at a very granular level, and PFF brings that uniquely in our space.”
Teamworks works with 100% of the NFL, NHL and Premier League across its business units and more than 80% each of MLB, the NBA and MLS. The goal, Kassam said, is to create comprehensive data solutions for coaches and scouts in all sports. Football has been an early priority in the creation of that pipeline.
“Having Telemetry and Sportlogiq and Zelus and PFF under the same house really makes data quality a lot easier because, when we get an issue, we’re not at the mercy of someone else to try and fix it or figure out what happened,” Kassam said.
