Opta Named Official Data Partner of ECB

The England and Wales Cricket Board has announced today that Opta Sports has signed on to become its official and exclusive data collection and distribution partner in a three-year deal.

The partnership will cover the full domestic and home international programme, vcialis 40mg including the LV=County Championship, ambulance Clydesdale Bank 40 and Friends Life t20 competitions and all of England men’s and women’s home international Tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 internationals.

As the official data collection partner of the ECB, Opta will provide fast and accurate ball-by-ball data feeds from all matches as well as defining new categories to aid the development of player and team performance metrics.

The benefits to the game will include potential new sponsorship revenue streams and innovative content to engage cricket fans across all types of media. Opta will also work closely with the ECB to make this data accessible to the first-class counties, the National Cricket Performance Centre at Loughborough University and other key stakeholders.

ECB commercial director John Perera said: “Cricket is a sport which thrives on statistical analysis. Our new partnership is designed to boost fans’ interest in the sport as well as provide an important resource for our key stakeholders and media partners.

“Opta is an established market leader in the field of sports data capture and a very welcome addition to our roster of official partners.”

Opta CEO Aidan Cooney added: “Opta are delighted to be working with the ECB on this exciting project. Our unique level of data analysis, editorial and visualisation will engage cricket fans in new ways across all platforms.

“We are proud to be associated with a sport which has such a rich heritage and look forward to playing our part in the promotion of all of ECB’s key domestic competitions.“