Indycar, the U.S.-based open-wheel racing series, announced a long-term partnership with Hookit that will make the analytics platform its official data supplier.
As part of the deal, Hookit will supply analytics capabilities to both Indycar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which hosted the Indy 500 this past weekend and will host a leg of the Nascar Cup Series in September.
Hookit will provide insights and evaluation on the performance of Indycar events and promotional campaigns for sponsors. Data will also be provided to all Indycar teams.
“At INDYCAR we are always looking for innovative new ways to succeed, both on the track and off,” said CJ O’Donnell, Indycar’s chief marketing officer, in a statement. “By partnering with Hookit, we are taking our sponsorships to a new level in terms of the value we will be able to create and prove as well as the effectiveness of our campaigns.”
Hookit Chief Revenue Officer Kimberly Cook said the partnership adds to the company’s efforts to expand its presence within the motorsports community.
“We continue to grow our presence within the motorsports community and are excited to be partnering with INDYCAR, which has among the most dedicated fan base in the world,” said Cook. “Sponsors are at the core of racing, so helping INDYCAR prove the great value it brings along with its fans and teams to its partners is key to continued growth in the sport.”
SportTechie Takeaway
Data analytics continues to be a core driver of megadeals across professional sports. Analytics can touch every facet of sports organizations, from back-end operations to player performance and the fan experience. This past weekend, Salesforce sponsored an analytics-powered exhibit at the Indy 500 that gave fans a way to explore quantifiable metrics on the track.
In other sports, data is at the heart of the way leagues are positioning themselves for the future. In a meshing of player tracking and the fan experience, the NBA struck a multimillion-dollar deal with Sportradar and Second Spectrum in 2016 to track player statistics, while the NFL is using analytics to repackage data pulled from chipped NFL jerseys into bite-sized tidbits for fans.
Analytics also help to make sense of back-end operations so that sports franchises can increase efficiencies and tweak the experience to better serve fans. At the San Francisco 49ers’ second-annual Innovation & Business Strategy conference earlier this month, the organization claimed to have one of the largest back-office analytics teams in professional sports.