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IBM, Sevilla FC to roll out AI-powered player scouting tool

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 26 Jan 2024
Fernando Suárez, IBM; José María del Nido Carrasco, president of Sevilla FC; Arturo Guerrero, IBM SPGI; Elías Zamora, CDO at Sevilla FC.
Fernando Suárez, IBM; José María del Nido Carrasco, president of Sevilla FC; Arturo Guerrero, IBM SPGI; Elías Zamora, CDO at Sevilla FC.

IBM has partnered with Spanish football club Sevilla FC to introduce Scout Advisor, a GenAI tool designed to empower the club’s scouting team with data-driven identification to help evaluate potential recruits.

Built on watsonx, IBM's AI and data platform for enterprises, Scout Advisor is integrated with Sevilla FC’s existing suite of data-intensive applications.

The football club’s data department worked with the IBM’s client engineering team to build Scout Advisor, leveraging watsonx' natural language processing and foundation models.

The tool searches and analyses information present in the club's existing databases to evaluate potential recruits. It also includes qualitative unstructured data such as textual analysis from more than 200 000 scouting reports.

The collaboration between IBM and Sevilla FC is part of the club's broader business and technology strategy, which aims to leverage the power of data and AI to enhance their football operations.

President of Sevilla FC José María del Nido Carrasco said the new tool is a game-changer for the whole sports industry. “Our team of scouters and analysts are committed to finding the best players to support our team's success and (they) have worked tirelessly to build an impressive database of player reports, and now, with the support of IBM, we can utilise this asset to its full potential,” he said.

The GM of IBM EMEA, Paula Assis, added: “With the appropriate guardrails and governance in place, AI continues to be a game-changer for businesses across many industries, and in this instance, by producing trusted and explainable insights that advance the goals of a competitive football club while transforming the work of a football scout.”

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