The NFL – Leading the Data Revolution

“Most sports and entertainment companies are satisfied by taking a more traditional focus on game attendance, meaning ticket purchases and merchandise purchases as a measure of fan engagement, and they stop there,” said Iwao Fusillo, SVP of Data Data Analytics and Insights at the National Football League. Since his arrival, however, Mr. Fusillo has spearheaded the NFL’s “data revolution” – from bringing on Amazon as a strategic partner for AI and machine learning technology to introducing wildly successful crowdsourcing programs such as the NFL Punt Analytics Competition and the NFL Big Data Bowl. Mr. Fusillo’s contribution to the NFL in the realm of data analysis have significantly pushed the culturally-significant sport of football forward in ways that even the most dedicated fans may not be aware of. In this interdisciplinary podcast between data, sports, and the NFL’s business model, our co-hosts Tiger and Arjun talk with Mr. Fusillo about the rapid integration of the latest data analytics advancements into the entertainment and sports industries. Mr. Fusillo also addresses some of the questions that consumers generally have about living an increasingly data-driven world: How does data analysis make football safer for its players? What are some of the fascinating models that the NFL is using to analyze and predict player performance? Is it a scary vision that our personal health metrics can be tracked at all times by future hardware devices? Is “Big Data” really something that every company should embrace in order to become successful? With trends indicating that most major companies are implementing data into their operations, Mr. Fusillo offers a unique insider perspective of the technological and business revolution happening across industries beyond tech companies. Listen now to learn how data-driven decision-making will be ubiquitous across the business world in the near future – and also to hear all the funny banter between Mr. Fusillo, Tiger, and Arjun!