Escola Universitària d’Enginyeria Tècnica de Telecomunicació La Salle Final Thesis Graduate in Management of Business and Technology AN INVESTIGATION OF THE MAIN LIMITATIONS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BIG DATA IN FOOTBALL AND A CONCRETE APPLICATION AS A DIFFERENTIATION SOLUTION FOR U.D. LOGROÑÉS Student Promoter ÁLVARO SALARICH ROIG CHRIS KENNETT Management Case Álvaro Salarich, Barcelona 2018-19. ACTA DE L'EXAMEN DEL TREBALL FI DE GRAU Meeting of the evaluating panel on this day, the student: D. ÁLVARO SALARICH ROIG Presented their final thesis on the following subject: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE MAIN LIMITATIONS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BIG DATA IN FOOTBALL AND A CONCRETE APPLICATION AS A DIFFERENTIATION SOLUTION FOR U.D. LOGROÑÉS At the end of the presentation and upon answering the questions of the members of the panel, this thesis was awarded the following grade: Barcelona, MEMBER OF THE PANEL MEMBER OF THE PANEL PRESIDENT OF THE PANEL 1 Management Case Álvaro Salarich, Barcelona 2018-19. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. 3 ABSTRACT................................................................................................................... 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................. 5 INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM .......................................................................... 6 The Spanish Football Pyramid. .............................................................................. 6 BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................ 8 Introduction to Big Data. ........................................................................................ 8 Big Data in Football. Key industry players and their interrelation. ........................... 9 But how all this performance data is collected and managed by these major players? ............................................................................................................... 10 Looking to other sports. Where are the next steps? ............................................. 12 Main limitations and barriers. ............................................................................... 14 SOLUTION PROPOSAL ............................................................................................. 16 Step 1: The Club (UD Logroñés, S.A.D.) and its current situation ........................ 16 What about the currently use of Data in the club? ................................................ 18 Step 2: The Proposed Solution: Differentiation through Big Data. Best Cases in the industry. ............................................................................................................... 19 Step 3: Applying the Solution. .............................................................................. 21 Step 4: Club’s Feedback. ..................................................................................... 27 Summary of the Process. ..................................................................................... 28 FINAL CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................. 29 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................. 30 1. Television Rights in Spanish LaLiga (Season 2017-2018): .............................. 30 2. UD Logroñés official budget for 2018-2019 season:......................................... 31 3. Interview with Juan José Guerreros, CEO and Vice-President of UD Logroñés. ............................................................................................................................ 32 4. Interviews with Carlos Lasheras, Sporting Director of UD Logroñés. ............... 34 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 37 2 Management Case Álvaro Salarich, Barcelona 2018-19. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank deeply all people working in UD Logroñés for their availability and the way they do everything easy. I had no doubt that they would help in the project in the way they have done because I am lucky to work with them and know how they are. More concrete, I want to thank Juan José Guerreros, vice-president and the ‘soul’ of the club, for all the help given to carry out this work and for being always there. And also, Carlos Lasheras, club’s Director of Football. To both of you, thanks for the total availability for any type of question and for giving me access to the economic and different data of the club. Your involvement has been vital. I will also want to thank Chris Kennett for his guidance and giving all kinds of advice through this project, and specially for his availability and the way he help me combine the realization of this Management Case with my professional activity. It has been a pleasure to have him as a promoter. And also want to make this extensible to all the teachers that I have had the opportunity to learn from during all these years. To my family, which have been by my side all these academic years, and my friends, who in one way or another have shared their support and willingness to help me, also coming up with useful ideas at different points. Thank you. 3 Management Case Álvaro Salarich, Barcelona 2018-19. ABSTRACT This management case aims to firstly analyze the current situation of the big data in the world of sports and in concrete in football, from its key players in the industry and their interrelations, its current applications and how they function to the main limitations and barriers, as a background to later proceed with the application. To apply the solution to a lower league club, a previous research, including interviews with people in charge of important departments of the club, has been conducted, in order to fully understand their needs and their objectives. Finally, a concrete, adapted and scalable solution has been presented to the Football Department of the club to try to achieve the demanded differentiation, key for its economical and sportive objectives. 4 Management Case Álvaro Salarich, Barcelona 2018-19. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The main objective of this Management Case is to try to shorten the distances so that the use of new technologies or more current ways of proceeding, such as Big Data, are also a reality in football, as is the case in other sports, like basketball, American football or baseball. To achieve this, it has been very important to understand or remember the hierarchy in football and the huge differences between top clubs and the rest, in terms of economical resources, available technology of the leagues or even people -or professionals- available to apply them. But not less important to understand previously how Big Data works, specially applied to sports and football in particular, which are the key players, which are the current limitations or barriers than football is facing in comparison to other sports or depending on the category in which we try to apply it, or what can be Big Data in a few year time. During this research, different case studios in the football industry have been appearing, from the biggest investments of Arsenal FC to some more concrete applications applied by less rich clubs as CD Leganés. And from these best cases in the industry and my own experience of some years working in the football industry, a concrete and feasible application came to my mind. The next step, and probably the most important one, has been to go from the application to a concrete and useful solution for a lower league club. Having the opportunity to work with UD Logroñés, the task has had to consist in understand the most the club, their Departments, their needs and objectives (in both economical and sportive perspective) and their problems and barriers they are facing to not achieving them. And once this research has been conducted, the club’s CEO and Sporting Director have explained the situation and the objective it has been totally clear, the solution has become a reality. Applying the solution, following the different steps, have not only been key for the primary objective of the management case of shorten the distances, and in some way showing that Big Data can be a reality, a useful tool, in 2019 for any football club in the world. It also has put in relevance and confirm the main barriers that the current Big Data in Football have and clarify which should be the next steps in order to achieve the extension of this practice. And also the critical difference between seeing the Big Data as a substitutive of current professionals and its methods or seeing the Big Data as a complementary tool has been explored and asked about to some players in the process, as a part of the feedback after the solution has been applied. 5 Management Case Álvaro Salarich, Barcelona 2018-19. INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM I have been working in the football industry for the past 2 years and despite it may sound not much time, for me it has been extremely intense, and specially, it has been enough to know, feel and understand the social, economic and even personal implications of succeeding or not, of being within the professional clubs or not. In football, the cake is extremely sweet (and profitable), but it is also very small and it is only shared within a small group of successful companies (clubs) which arrived