Wisehockey and the Finnish Ice Hockey Association are developing Finnish ice hockey using digitalization. The advanced tools of Wisehockey’s sports analytics platform enable not only better individual training and tracking of the sport’s development within leagues, but also comparing different league levels with each other. Fully automated real-time hockey analytics benefit leagues regardless of age groups.
The Finnish Ice Hockey Association expands the Wisehockey analytics platform to three ice hockey leagues, Mestis (second-highest men’s league), Finnish U20 league and Auroraliiga (premier women’s league). The new 5-year contract means that the analytics platform will be installed in almost 20 new arenas.
Generating statistics by automated algorithms does not require slow manual calculations, and the end results are more consistent compared to the human eye. The leagues receive more data and can analyze different aspects of the game more profoundly using different meters, on both player and team levels.
“Expanding Wisehockey’s analytics technology to Mestis, Finland’s U20 league and Auroraliiga is a historical step toward a completely new data-driven era in Finnish ice hockey. This technology provides Finnish ice hockey with a unique opportunity to train players individually and objectively. Players and coaches will receive accurate data about movements, game pace and in-game choices. Before this such data were only available on the highest level,” says Jere Lahti, Director of Competence Development and CDO at the Finnish Ice Hockey Association.
Partnership is part of the strategy
”Partnership with Wisehockey is not just another technology project for us. It is part of our strategic goal to make analytics and modern tools part of everyday operations in leagues on all levels. We also expect new openings in research, training and even business innovations,” Jere Lahti describes the significance of automated real-time analytics to the Finnish Ice Hockey Association.
When the Wisehockey platform gathers more data, players’ and teams’ performance can be tracked over long time periods. When analytics models improve, it is also possible to reprocess the gathered data to generate new statistics long after a game or practice.
“Wisehockey’s real-time analytics technology is a great step toward more systematic and individual coaching. It provides leagues with a professional-level knowledge base that wasn’t available before. This means that we can track player progress accurately and over time – not just during a game, but throughout the season,” says Olli Salo, High Performance Director at the Finnish Ice Hockey Association.
Wisehockey statistics can also be displayed during games on the jumbotron screen and LED screens in arenas, which adds a new layer to the viewer experience. Different ways of using Wisehockey data in arenas, on TV and in betting are already routine in big leagues like the Finnish Hockey League Liiga and the German PENNY DEL. Wisehockey’s automated video clipping tool helps even small hockey clubs create content quickly and easily, which makes hyping up the fans easier than ever.
Real-time analytics provide hockey clubs with concrete knowledge
”Most of all, this technology is a tool that supports learning for us. It provides coaches with concrete knowledge that helps decision-making and gives players a clear picture of their progress. It also helps us compare data from international play to the data from our leagues. All of this supports the progress of Finnish high-level sports and strengthens the continuation of player development on different league levels,” Olli Salo summarizes.
The partnership also allows Wisehockey to continue developing the automated analytics platform backed with feedback from different levels of the sport.
”Our expanding partnership with the Finnish Ice Hockey Association highlights a significant advancement in Finnish ice hockey. In addition to real-time analysis, the new contract provides a wide range of automated video and training tools for everyday use by athletes and coaches from the beginning of an athlete’s path. We find it really great that Auroraliiga adopts real-time analytics as the first women’s league in the world. Our partnership with the Association also provides us with valuable feedback on the requirements of high-level sports and everyday operations,” says Miska Kuusisto, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Wisehockey.
Using the Wisehockey platform in practices and on game days is simple. Games are played with a smart puck containing a tracking tag, and similar tags, with batteries lasting the entire season, are attached to players’ gear. The platform runs analytics automatically in the background.
