William Spearman @the_spearman Twitter profile

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

3 months

We're hiring for a Lead Data Scientist to join our Research Department @LFC

Liverpool Football Club - Lead Data Scientist

careers.liverpoolfc.com

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

3 months

We're hiring a Junior Data Analyst to join our Research Department @LFC

Liverpool Football Club - Junior Data Analyst

careers.liverpoolfc.com

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

🏆

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

There are a few questions that I get asked from time to time, so I thought I'd share my answers here. 1) How can I get a career in football analytics? 2) Are there resources available to help me learn how to do football analytics? 3) Is any of your work public?

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 months

Excited to announce that we're hiring for a Performance Insights Lead at @LFC #LFCJobs

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

2 years

We're hiring an Academy Data Analyst:

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

Looking forward to presenting at @Harvard_Sports tonight. Will be discussing everything from pitch control to passing probabilities to off-ball scoring opportunities. @HudlAnalysis

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

I don't normally post about my personal life, but some events are too big not to mention. I recently got married to an absolutely amazing woman, @kirakira1712 , and now that the photos are in, I wanted to share.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

#SSAC18 research papers are out! Go check out how we measure the off-ball scoring chance creation in soccer @HudlAnalysis @Hudl

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

3 years

This is an extremely insightful interview with the inimitable @analyseFooty . Anyone interested in what analytics actually looks like at a club should give a listen:

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

YNWA

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

2 years

🇫🇷

Liverpool FC

@LFC

2 years

PARIS HERE WE COME ✊🔴

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

8 years

Pleased to announce that our research paper for #SSAC17 is up! Flying to Boston tomorrow! @HudlAnalysis @LifeAtHudl

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

2) There are a lot of good resources for getting started with football analytics. One of the best is the Github repository created by @devinpleuler . It has a ton of invaluable information and links to other content:

GitHub - devinpleuler/analytics-handbook: Getting started with soccer analytics

Getting started with soccer analytics. Contribute to devinpleuler/analytics-handbook development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

8 years

Check out my blog post @HudlAnalysis on using using tracking data to analyze passing and open space in a match:

Don't Waste Your Data: Using Tracking Data to Find Key Moments in Soccer with Open Space • Hudl Blog

Our research and development team was selected to present at the 2017 OptaPro & MIT Sloan Analytics Conferences on their recent work analyzing passing probabilities in football (soccer).

www.hudl.com

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

1 year

Omar was a brilliant young man and is deeply missed. His family and friends have organised the most fitting tribute I could imagine.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

This might be among the best line-up I've seen at a football analytics conference. A lot of distinguished speakers who are out there putting the theory into practice at the club level in addition to some other great minds in academia and industry.

Ravi Ramineni

@analyseFooty

5 years

The 2019 @SoundersFC Analytics Conference Schedule 📊⚽️📈✅ We are beyond excited to listen and learn from this group of excellent practitioners and thankful for their time. 🙏🏽 June 22-23 in Seattle Register here 👇🏽 #SoccerAnalytics #SSFCAnalytics

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

Good profile of Ian!

Behind the Badge: The physicist who leads Liverpool's data department

A desire for change led Ian Graham to conclude that a life in academia wasn't for him.

www.liverpoolfc.com

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

Looking forward to speaking at #PSGsummit2019 later this month!

PSG Performance Department

@PSG_Performance

5 years

Spearman W. ( @the_spearman ) from @LFC : "Quantifying Pitch Control" #PSGsummit2019 " @PSG_inside Striving for Excellence Summit" by @Aspetar ✏️Registration: 🎤🇫🇷🇬🇧 📅May 20&21 - 2019 🏟️Parc des Princes

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

3 years

CERN Derby #FRASUI

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

Additionally the Friends of Tracking YouTube channel has a good discussion by @JaviOnData , @suds_g , @PeraltaFran23 , @pascal_bauer , and @Soccermatics (all working at clubs or for federations) on this very subject:

How to become a football data scientist.

Words of wisdom for those in the job. Pascal Bauer (Deutscher Fußball-Bund), Javier Fernandez (Barcelona), Suds Gopaladesikan (Benfica), Fran Peralta (Hammar...

www.youtube.com

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

6 years

BT's subtitle game is on point #Koke #Cocaine

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

3) Here are some links to my own public work. Quantifying Pitch Control - OptaPro Analytics Forum 2016: This talk introduces a data-driven model of pitch control based on time-to-intercept.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

@TomasSloot @mixedknuts Nice guide to a some of the data available for football (free data is usually match data not event/tracking data):

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

👏👏👏

Sounders Sports Science & Analytics

@SSFCSpSci

5 years

Proud to have ⁦ @ChampionsLeague winner⁩ Dafydd Steele from ⁦ @LFC ⁩ talking “Efficient Player Recruitment” - surely they know a bit about this topic #SSFCAnalytics

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

I know I'm not the first to say it, but amazing to have @analyseFooty and @devinpleuler in the MLS Cup Final! What a win for analytics and what a great run both teams have had so far.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

This is excellent content!

Laurie Shaw

@EightyFivePoint

4 years

Loads of content up on Friends of Tracking now. In terms of tracking data content, here's where we stand: Part 1 - Gaining deeper insights on shots & passes. Part 2 - Measuring the physical performance of players. Part 3 - Pitch control. Part 4 - Evaluating passing options.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

Introducing Pitch Control - Friends of Tracking Talk 2020: This is a discussion of pitch control and various applications of the concept.

Liverpool FC data scientist William Spearman's masterclass in pitch...

Pitch control is the probability that a player could control the ball assuming it is at that location.William Spearman explains:- The principles behind pitch...

www.youtube.com

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

6 years

A football analytics role just opened up @Hudl . Really worth a look:

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

3 years

This is an excellent piece by @EveryTeam_Mark that does a deep dive into Reep’s career, the impact he had on the field, and how he, along with Richard Pollard, were developing models decades ago that are still considered new and interesting today.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

Beyond Expected Goals - MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference 2018: This paper extends the concept of pitch control to create a spatial value model in football.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

Brilliant work from Javier and Luke as usual!

Javier Fernández

@JaviOnData

4 years

Next Tuesday 15th @LukeBornn and I will be presenting our latest paper at ECML-PKDD 2020 conference. We introduce SoccerMap, a flexible deep learning architecture for predicting full probability maps from raw tracking-data.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

You gotta feel for Harvard here!

Laurie Shaw

@EightyFivePoint

4 years

Some professional news...at the end of this month I'll be leaving Harvard to join @BrianPrestidge 's Data Insights and Decision Technology team at City Football Group I'm very excited to join CFG and have the opportunity to work at the cutting edge of data & analytics in football

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

Congratulations to Arsenal and to @srudd_ok and @susanaferreras !!!

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

6 years

Excellent look at how runs can create space and disrupt formations leading to shots. #OptaProForum @Mladen_Sormaz @D4N__

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

6 years

Interesting use of event data to approximate tracking data #OptaProForum

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

6 years

We have a Voronoi appearance #OptaProForum @numberstorm discusses set pieces using tracking data.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

8 years

I was invited to present a new model at the #SSAC17 poster session that quantifies both pitch control and passing probabilities in soccer.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

Really enjoyed this! Many thanks to all who organized and participated!

David Sumpter

@Soccermatics

5 years

For me personally, Thursday's live #FoT was one of the best discussions I have ever had about the science behind football analytics. So in depth with @JaviOnData , @the_spearman , @suds_g and @EightyFivePoint . Here @sk3tchYourLife really picks out the key points of the discussion.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

3 years

This is important work!

Michael Lopez

@StatsbyLopez

3 years

Poland plays Senegal in soccer. 70% of respondents identified Senegal as the more athletic team when watching video 62% of respondents said Poland was the more athletic team when using pose/computer vision It was the same clip of the same game #nessis21 @GregorydSam

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

1) I got my start in sports analytics thanks to working at @Hudl . Before that I did my Ph.D. in particle physics at @CERN . My route isn’t the most common way to get into the field and @mixedknuts has good advice on the topic:

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

Me right now

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

@JLin7 playing @LeagueOfLegends at #SSAC18

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

Ian killing it!

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

Swansea City is hiring a data scientist! Check it out:

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

Honored to be presenting at @OptaPro 's first analytics event in the USA! @HudlAnalysis

Stats Perform Pro

@OptaPro

7 years

NEWS: OptaPro to host its first analytics event in the USA. . Stateside.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

3 years

Really enjoying these visualisations of the Euros by Pedro!

Pedro Pereira

@data_pedro

3 years

England 1 x 0 Croatia #Euro2020 The game in one minute: dynamic heatmap and xG plot / O jogo em um minuto: mapa de calor dinâmico e plotagem da expectativa de gols (xG) #ENG #CRO #ENGCRO @EnglandFootball @HNS_CFF

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

@bx_juventino @AdinOsmanbasic @Harvard_Sports @HudlAnalysis Unfortunately the deck isn't public yet, but here are links to most of the material discussed: 2017 OptaPro Forum: 2017 SSAC Paper: 2017 Pitch Control Blog Post: 2018 SSAC Paper:

Don't Waste Your Data: Using Tracking Data to Find Key Moments in Soccer with Open Space • Hudl Blog

Our research and development team was selected to present at the 2017 OptaPro & MIT Sloan Analytics Conferences on their recent work analyzing passing probabilities in football (soccer).

www.hudl.com

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

Very interesting from @Stat_Ron at #NESSIS

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

6 years

Generating synthetic training data for body pose estimation in football. #OptaProForum

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

Physics Based Model of Pass Probabilities in Soccer - MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference 2017: This paper introduces a simulation approach to quantifying the control players exert on the ball in dynamic situations.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

1/2 List of #SSAC18 research paper authors I was able to find on Twitter. @ACherukumudi @patricklucey @rachelmarty20 @OSPpatrick @BARRYD22 @JaviOnData @LukeBornn @pmaymin @omarajmeri @SkazaSays @nick_linck @counterattack9 @aarzchan @StatsOnTheT @DanielSailofsky @the_spearman

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

Interesting to see @pmarques82 discuss how the role of data in football has evolved over time and how it is used in practice at a club. #PSGsummit2019

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

Excellent tracking using a combination of publicly available CV algorithms by @neilmjohnson at #NESSIS

neil

@neilmjohnson

5 years

Very excited to present "Extracting Player Tracking data from video using non-stationary cameras and a combination of computer vision techniques" at #NESSIS on Sept. 28th! Here's a sneak peak of what it looks like:

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

@TiagoEstv Pretty sure it refers to the mountains between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. Traditionally the Democratic candidates in Iowa must run to the summit of Mount Elbrus and the first to get there wins the party nomination.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

3 years

Jan is very good!

Jan Van Haaren

@JanVanHaaren

3 years

As a result, I am currently looking for a new challenge, preferably within football analytics or sports analytics. If you are interested in having a chat with me, then please feel free to get in touch!

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

Just submitted the SSAC abstract with almost 2 hours to spare (definitely a record)! #SSAC #HudlResearch #hudl

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

2 years

Some brilliant people who deserve a lot of credit for what they're doing in the space.

Google DeepMind

@GoogleDeepMind

2 years

Work by Shayegan Omidshafiei, @karl_tuyls , Zhe Wang, @GarneloMarta , Daniel Hennes, @arecasens , and @demishassabis . 3/3

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

@MC_of_A This is AMAZING

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

It's very easy to get a COVID-19 test in Liverpool. I walked in, was tested 5-min later, and had results 30-min after that. Worthwhile if you haven't done it already.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

@dperdomomeza1 @MessiSeconds @joelgrus 's book is one of my favorite because he shows how to build models from the ground up, an invaluable skill:

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

This is great from @analyseFooty and @devinpleuler ! Come listen if you're not already:

Friends of Tracking Live: MLS Masterclass

Ravi Raminemi (Seattle Sounders) and Devin Pleuler (Toronto FC) join the usual panel to discuss similarities and difficulteis between analytics in the MLS an...

www.youtube.com

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

We've just opened up a data science internship in our London office. Check it out!

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

Great to see @ruudvanelk and his work profiled on the club website!

PSV

@PSV

5 years

𝘔𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮. Maak kennis met @ruudvanelk , bewegingswetenschapper bij PSV. #PSVinDoha

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

Now, would also love to read one from @Arsenal about @srudd_ok

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

Must watch from @suds_g , @Soccermatics , @JaviOnData , @PeraltaFran23 , and Pascal Bauer

FC rSTATS

@FC_rstats

5 years

If you are not watching this webinar - do so

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

Excellent resource!

Devin Pleuler

@devinpleuler

5 years

I've put together a Soccer Analytics Handbook. It provides some guidelines on what I think is worth learning, a bunch of interactive notebooks via @GoogleColab , and an extensive reading list of historical analytics writing and research.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

3 years

Great to see @hugoriosneto pushing this sort of analysis forward.

Barça Innovation Hub

@BarcaInnoHub

3 years

Thanks to @Soccermatics & @hugoriosneto for their webinar on Football Analytics today! We hope you found it insightful + also see how to work in a football club + the experience when inside one. You can still access it for 24h by registering here:

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

Really good tutorial from @EightyFivePoint here!

Laurie Shaw

@EightyFivePoint

4 years

New Friends of Tracking video tutorial: How to build your own pitch control model in python. Based on the model of @the_spearman , I show you how to build a pitch control model and use it to evaluate a player's passing options. #FoT

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

6 years

I think I could get used to having mountains like this a two hour drive away.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

Many thanks to @mathlacome and @PSG_Performance for hosting an excellent summit. Very pleased to be have been able to participate. #PSGsummit2019

PSG Performance Department

@PSG_Performance

5 years

📈 #PSGsummit2019 @the_spearman ( @LFC ) “There have been ‘data scientists’ in football for quite a long time but their roles weren’t defined as that.”

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

2 years

@Worville Double checking my hotkeys and warming up my fingers as we speak!

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

Congrats, Tom!

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

I love trolling my coworkers with Star Wars spoilers #StarWarsTheLastJedi #Spoilers @LifeAtHudl @jbencook

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

This is excellent from Laurie to see how exactly to start digging into the tracking data in a useful way.

Laurie Shaw

@EightyFivePoint

5 years

New video tutorial in our Friends of Tracking series: "Delving deeper into the tracking data - measuring the physical performance of players." #FoT I describe how to make movies from the data, measure player velocity, and create physical summary reports

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

@johnspacemuller @R_Testas The fabled Welsh side, Wolves! And Seafaring Arsenal!

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

Excellent work and presentation by @susanaferreras on a claims model used at @Arsenal #PSGsummit2019

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

Some quality inflight reading. #SSAC18

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

@GraceOnFootball Can’t complain 🤣

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

4 years

Well done @EightyFivePoint and @suds_g !!!

Laurie Shaw

@EightyFivePoint

4 years

It was really excited to present our paper at @SloanSportsConf this year, and am absolutely thrilled that @suds_g and I finished in first place in the research paper competition. #SSAC21

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

@EightyFivePoint presents a hierarchical clustering of scale and location invariant ⚽️ formations #NESSIS

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

Should be a very interesting presentation from @AlexThomasTheFA

Training Ground Guru

@ground_guru

5 years

Delighted that @FA data scientist @AlexThomasTheFA has joined our roster of speakers for 'Big Data: The Future of Football?' in Manchester on Nov 22nd England teams are doing a lot of excellent work in this area/ will be fascinating to find out more...

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

6 years

The radars have arrived! @Torvaney at the #OptaProForum

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

6 years

This is an excellent event! If you're in Boston now and are into ⚽️-analytics, don't miss it.

Soccermetrics

@soccermetrics

6 years

In less than 24 hours, we meet again -- and for the first time. See you at 7pm at @LirOnBoylston for the Soccer Analytics Meetup. Drinks and food on us!

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

Excellent model and results from @counterattack9 on passing. Great read!

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

6 years

That's an interesting job:

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

6 years

I could watch this for days.

Sofía Villalpando

@sofiabiologista

6 years

Dogs herding sheep 🐑🐑🐑 via Tysonism.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

@Torvaney @Elijah_Meeks @dataandme @dcervone0 Here's the full blog post write-up if you're interested:

Don't Waste Your Data: Using Tracking Data to Find Key Moments in Soccer with Open Space • Hudl Blog

Our research and development team was selected to present at the 2017 OptaPro & MIT Sloan Analytics Conferences on their recent work analyzing passing probabilities in football (soccer).

www.hudl.com

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

6 years

I'm genuinely confused by this message I received on LinkedIn.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

5 years

This looks like an excellent opportunity to work with @England and @AlexThomasTheFA !

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

6 years

@LukeBornn Guess I'll have to buy scientific journal access now 🤷‍♂️ In seriousness, thank you for your work. It's hard to overstate your influence on my career and those of many others.

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William Spearman

@the_spearman

7 years

At #SSAC18 I learned that if the data doesn’t pass the smell test, the data might be wrong. I didn’t expect there would be a quiz. #cranberry -juice