In any business, there are decisions to be made, and a lot of those are going to be tough. In sports, there is no difference. From who to start on the mound against your rival to who to take as the #1 pick in the NFL Draft, decisions are made every single day that require a lot of thought. Any advantage that sports managers and owners can get, they take, because every little bonus can make the difference between winning a championship that season, or finishing last.
Eye-Scout, which is an algorithm-based decision maker, is the next competitive advantage for sports managers. Eye-Scout is a professional scouting software company that uses algorithms to decide which available talent would be best for any team. The program takes all the team’s needs into account, factors in the talent pool, salary limits, among other factors, and is able to generate a ranked list of the available talent that is best for the team.
To go more in-depth, the software uses a cloud-based analysis system (currently patent pending) that allows it to compile all of its data in one big virtual “drive.” Once all of the data has been compiled about any players they are scouting, it is compared to the team’s requirements and needs that it inputs into the system. This analysis is able to produce a list of who the best players are for that specific team, making decisions that much easier and clear-cut for teams. Eye-Scout’s main goal is to eliminate the uncertainty in making decisions that clogs everyone’s head come crunch time, and to make “the data personal and meaningful to each customer.”
They want to get rid of any unconscious biases, clear everyone’s heads, and have no confusion between the decision-makers of any team. Eye-Scout sums up its product very succinctly: “You know your team, you set the criteria, but we’ll sift through the data. Our unique (patent pending) proprietary algorithmic process cuts through the fog and helps make personnel decisions crystal clear.“
Eye-Scout’s technology was originally used by the United States Army, and is still being improved upon today. In fact, Steven Burkett, the creator of Eye-Scout, was inspired to create this program based on his similar work with the Army since 2001. Steven Burkett has an Army Defense company called SL1, Inc., which has been implementing this technology in a different way.
The U.S. Army uses this technology by using their soldiers as human intelligence on the ground. Soldiers have program sensors that they can input information into about where the enemy is, where they are, and what the situation is. All of this information is sent to the operations control center, where the software and the Army crew work together to create the best action plan for each situation. This way, instead of soldiers in the battlefield making gut calls; the software provides them with better, consciously examined answers. This software makes the difference between arresting or killing an innocent civilian versus getting that same person out of a dangerous area.
As stated earlier, Eye-Scout was founded in 2010 to help bring this same technology to sports, especially the NFL with regards to the draft. Most NFL teams these days still stick by the old paper-and-pen method of scouting. Scouts go to every practice, notepads in hand, scribbling down tons and tons of notes that they have to turn into reports later to send to the corporate offices.
Instead of writing up these massive reports to go into a binder on Draft Day, NFL scouts can use Eye-Scout to input all the information into the program, and let the software generate the reports using its analysis. This not only saves time and energy, but also provides a more concise way to analyze scouting reports. NFL managers and owners can see everything they saw before, but in a simpler format that allows for easier decision-making. With this information digitized, NFL teams no longer need those giant binders. All they need is the Eye-Scout report on each player and the ranked list of which players are right for their team, and the decision is right there.
A perfect example to use this software is this year’s NFL Draft. The Houston Texans had the #1 pick, and were deciding between two front-runners, Johnny Manziel and Jadeveon Clowney. Now, we all know they ended up picking Jadeveon Clowney, but the decision-making process could’ve been simplified for the Texans had they used Eye-Scout’s technology.
Most of the NFL experts were on air for weeks debating over Manziel versus Clowney. Obviously, Clowney and Manziel are two very good players, and both could’ve received the #1 pick. The Texans were busy going through numerous scouting reports, lots of data, lots of huge binders of information, and differing opinions. In reality, all the Texans needed was to input data from scouting these two highly-touted players into Eye-Scout, along with their team’s needs and requirements, and look at the Eye-Scout report to see which player it ranks higher on the Texans’ list. This way, there is no argument among the Texans, they don’t have to worry about the “crunch time” of the NFL draft, and they can sit back and relax with their #1 pick securely in hand.
Besides the draft, NFL teams can utilize this technology during the season. If the team is debating over a trade, they can use Eye-Scout to evaluate him and see where he ranks on their team’s list. With trades, there are many factors to consider, such as: salary, contract length, bonuses, playing time, etc, but the real factor is whether the player will help the team win. That single factor is one that coaches and management debate most before making a trade, and Eye-Scout is able to decide that factor. Additionally, with a tiny bit of tweaking to the current technology, Eye-Scout can help determine a team’s game plan for the week or during the game itself, just like the Army technology. By inputting data from both teams about their player’s strengths and weaknesses, Eye-Scout can help generate a report about how to have the best chance of winning; i.e. what formations to run, what situations work best with which plays, etc. If the situation changes in game, coaches can input the new data into Eye-Scout. With its immediate response system from the Army technology, coaches can come up with the perfect call to make during any point in the game.
Eye-Scout has potential in the sports world because it accomplishes one of the toughest parts of being involved in sports, making decisions. Eye-Scout helps to simplify and compress all the days and hours of time and effort that are put into analyzing and evaluating players.
The most important part of managing a sports team is finding a way to bring home a championship. There are financial pressures, external pressures, and internal pressures all around the team for them to win right away. These daily decisions can impact whether you win this year or not. In turn, this could impact whether a team needs to find a new manager at the end of the season.
Eye-Scout aims to get rid of all the worry, because it is able to present the team with its best available options scientifically, clearing all of the confusion, bias, and discussion out of the room, leaving everyone with a win-win situation.