Betway's Insider has presented its latest statistics that by the end of 2021, the estimated value of sports analytics valuation will reach $4.7 billion. This is the reason the NHL (National Hockey League) has finally announced that after 24 years of planning, drafting the changes and thinking about innovation it has now decided to bring Big Data into its sports.

With the introduction of trackable pucks and big data, a whole new era of ice hockey is predicted to be seen for the fans, the players, the team as a whole and of course for the sponsors as well. Now the NHL management is also planning to discover the next megastar of NHL sports through the help of big data. This is going to be a new development that will change the horizons of the game.

Searching for new player with big data
All the professional sports teams are currently working their best to discover highly-talented, capable and elite players to include in their teams right before their competitors find them. There is no doubt that high-calibre players are always appreciated and respected more, and are their transfer fees are also exceptionally high.

In NHL, each team plays a season with 82 players and it is difficult to focus on a single player in such an energetic sport. This is why the data analytics and tracking can help in analysing the shiny stars, especially when it comes to transferring season.

Through big data the competing managers can have a better idea of which player is better and has the ability to lead their team to win in the next season, hence they can make offers accordingly.

In the 2019 NHL draft, 217 players were selected. With big data, the number can either increase or decrease getting high-calibre and enthusiastic players. The NHL clubs have also spent $35m on transfer fees for bringing genuine European talent to North America. The NHL management is also focusing on finding diamonds in the rough, such as school or college players to offer them a spot and an opportunity in their team.

How the big data algorithm will work?
The traditional way was just to point out the talent and then search about him for many days or even months to finalise. But now with the influx of augmented technologies, computer vision and different Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms the analysis of the player can become much quicker.

Through big data, the managers and team organisers can get real-time performance data of every player, instantly. Moreover, with overall performance statistics throughout the season, instantaneous shot and stroke videos and sensor data combined can help the coaches in evaluating talent and they can later use the information during transfer season.

Conclusion
Finding new emerging talent in NHL can be really difficult but with the tracking system, a database can be formed against each player's current season. With the help of AI, identifying the star player throughout the season will become much easier.
The infographic was provided courtesy of Betway Online.