Peak6 Investments co-founder Matt Hulsizer covers everything from fintech to sportstechMark Bryan-Brown
Technology is already having a huge impact on the world of sports officiating, from VAR in soccer to optimal tracking suggestions for line-to-gain calls in the NFL to potential robot referees in MLB. said Matt Hulsizer, co-founder of Peak6 Investments. SBJ Tech Week in New York on Wednesday showed that this technology is only going to become more established in the coming years. Halreiser was asked about the two leagues he is familiar with. One is the NHL, which owns a minority stake in the Wild, and the other is the Premier League, which owns stakes in multiple clubs. Regarding the NHL, Hulsizer said the league is “making progress,” but “I wish it was a little faster.” Hulzer: “There were some decisions made…I know the exact play that happened six weeks ago, but it was probably a year ago and it was a completely different decision. The league understands that. , I think we're trying to move forward.'' He added that the league has also “improved some of the data collection” in recent years. But when it comes to football, Halliser, who admitted he would likely be fined for his own comments, said it would be “problematic” to referee the EPL. Hulsizer: “Sports had been going just fine for 150 years before technology came along. … So now we've added this VAR (video-assisted refereeing), which again, I don't care about. I What worries us is when we get it wrong. . . . If you're going to review it, at least get it right. . . . We can tolerate human error, but we can't tolerate human error if the technology is wrong. you can't.”
Other topics touched on in Hulsizer's 1:1:
- Wins and losses when investing in sports technology: “One of the things we invested in that didn't do very well…was a company that was using a lot of data and technology to measure and predict winners in MotoGP and F1. The idea was to sell it to the team…and the only buyer that came up was, of course, a gambling house.Then, the gambling house that was using it ran into trouble, so the exclusive deal fell through. So, as a business, it wasn't a shortage.'' In terms of skills, it was really a matter of execution. …He is one of the companies we are proud of. It's a company called SportsDigita. They are effectively the sales force of a sports team. …and they're not doing anything. “What's particularly good about it is that it does everything very well. So you end up just going there for the ease of use.”
- About Peak6 AI and its applications: “What artificial intelligence gets really good at is measurable things. … Its computational skills, the computers, are better, but the relational skills aren't as good, so it's going to take a little bit more time. So I think AI will do particularly well in individual sports initially, but later on as it learns to get better at more relational sports like soccer and football.”
- Regarding investments in European soccer clubs including the Premier League: “I grew up not thinking that's what I was supposed to do because I could afford to invest in Premier League clubs. I'm very grateful that we're in that position. It's interesting Yes, there are more options with the relegation and promotion elements, making it a potentially challenging and fun puzzle.”
- How to analyze “meaningless” sports data: “Most of the data we record in sports tends to be meaningless data. And we've learned this lesson. And here's where sports can follow the financial industry. .The financial industry tried to do this years ago, and we did it. We analyzed all the data we could find and created this huge matrix. And we looked at the direction of the market. Did you know that the single best indicator to predict movement is what we've found? Denver Broncos home wins… What we learned is that if you… You start with a hypothesis and then structure the data. If you go the other way, it's deadly.”
