Stats Perform has teamed with Serie A’s Parma Calcio in a tie-up which will see the Italian team become the first club to access the Edge Recruitment platform – the industry’s player identification tool.
Launched earlier this season, Edge Recruitment introduces a new method of assessing players, applying multiple AI-powered models to profile players based on their role in a team.
At the heart of the platform is Role Discovery, a model which detects 18 different types of roles all over the pitch based on a player’s spatial tendencies, contributions to different phases of play, possession involvement, distribution and shooting tendencies.
Director of Analytics at Parma Calcio, Oliver Krause, commented: “When we acquired Parma Calcio, one of our pillars for the club was to become a European leader in analytics.
“Our first step was to find an innovative way to optimise our scouting and recruitment methods. After working with Stats Perform during the final stages of their creation of Edge Recruitment, I was extremely impressed with what I saw and eager to be the first club to use the revolutionary AI tool.
“We have already seen the benefits available by identifying young players from unconventional markets who fit the roles we need and can contribute in Serie A. We are looking forward to expanding our use of the data provided by Stats Perform and creating even more value from the partnership.”
Through applying Role Discovery, the club’s recruitment analysts can directly compare players who fit the parameters of each role within their game model more objectively. This can streamline the scouting process to ensure that players, who play in the same position on the field, are not assessed like-for-like but instead are analysed in the context of the role they fulfil.
Edge Recruitment then enables clubs to benchmark players and compare prospects profiling in the same role across key recruitment markets.
“We are delighted to be enhancing existing processes in place at Parma Calcio and supporting them with access to innovative unique insights,” added Tommaso Refini, Business Development Manager Italy at Stats Perform.
“It is going to be a new exciting AI-driven approach to their scouting activity and, thanks to Oliver Krause and his team, we are looking forward to being a part of this journey.”
