2023 - a significant year for TeamOppy

Farewell to 2023 and a look forward to 2024

2023 - a significant year for TeamOppy

As we bid farewell to 2023, it's the perfect time to reminisce about the milestones we've achieved at TeamOppy and eagerly anticipate the adventures that lie ahead in the coming year. This year has been nothing short of transformative for us – from welcoming our inaugural subscribers to forging key partnerships and introducing major enhancements to our platform.

Early beginnings

If this is your first-time hearing about TeamOppy then let me paint the backdrop of the story. What is it? In a nutshell it is a Performance Analysis platform for game event data collection, live player management, video analysis and reporting with some really unique features. Originating in 2020, the journey began with my involvement with the management of my local hurling team. Utilizing an app for Gaelic Games, we tracked various Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) during games. When the pandemic struck, lockdown provided the opportunity to delve into the data. Drawing on my IT background, I crafted a web app to visualise the data in charts and position maps. This evolved with a customisable tagging engine and dashboard added. After a number of iterations, Tagger was officially unveiled in October 2022 and saw its first subscribers earlier this year.

Major features added

When conceiving Tagger, we prioritized versatility – it had to cater to a multitude of sports, operate both online and offline, with or without video, and be accessible on all devices, all while remaining affordable to all. Tagger's evolution is user-driven, shaped by those who use it.

Hockey Manager Mode

A prime example of a user driven feature is Hockey Manager Mode. When I first got in touch with Jimmy Culnane (Director of Hockey with Wimbledon HC, and assistant coach with Scotland WNT), one of the first questions he asked was could it handle substitutions and could it produce an XML.

From that conversation we collaborated to develop Hockey Manager Mode, a powerful feature in Tagger that allows managers and coaches to manage their in-game rotations. With Timers on each player and sub to show their current time on the field (off the field in the case of the sub) and their total playing time, managers/coaches are able to make quick decisions as to who are the next players to roll on/off. Cards can be added to players with sin-bin countdowns. Formations can be changed to reflect the game. In Hockey it is vital to have key specialist role players on the field of play at all times. Using specialized role alerts, it ensures key players are on the field when needed. It also includes some Key events to capture.

To cap it all off, post-game you can add the game video to Tagger and sync it up with the event data to allow players to review all their game time and the key events that occurred in the game. Alternatively, the XML of the game can be downloaded and ingested into other apps for further processing and distribution.

This feature has proven to be a top-class addition and has been successfully trialled by international sides such as the England NAG group under Tom Elliot and most recently the US Womens National Team led by David Passmore, Hannah Jaussen and team.

Other Key features

Other Key Features that were developed during the year include the Dashboard Designer tool which is a powerful tool for creating custom Dashboards to supplement the Standard Dashboard layout that Tagger provides.

The Video Studio allows users to add graphics and text to video clips, create automatic and custom playlists, and provides the ability to export the clips and playlists to video files. Some of what you see were suggestions that came from the Steven Gerrard Academy, in particular Andy Marshall (Lead Sports Scientist) who has provided amazing feedback throughout the year. Event shortcuts are another feature developed in collaboration with Andy.

Tagger Rooms is an Elite level feature, this allows multiple analysts to tag live on the same game from the side of the pitch or from the comfort of their living room (with a live YouTube link) and feed the events back to the coach on the sideline who can review the Dashboard and clips of the game for immediate feedback that can affect the game.

The Totals Tables then are for those analysts, coaches and managers who like to focus on the numbers. You can configure tables to show counts and calculated totals of all your event data, provided and overall game total as well as totals broken down by period and by player.

Tagger Rooms and Totals Tables were developed in conjunction with Mike Hopkinson (lecturer in Performance Analysis at Leeds Beckett university).

In December we announced the introduction of the new Accounts Portal to handle creation and management of individual and organisation accounts. This is an important introduction as it enables the roll-out of TeamOppy to organization users under the one account subscription.

Relationships

It was a year where we developed great relationships with analysts, coaches and clubs alike. In September we announced our partnership with Wimbledon Hockey Club and we are looking forward to working further with them in the coming year.

It was great to get feedback from the likes of Elliott Foweraker, Paul Dunleavy and Tom Elliott amongst many others from the Hockey world, plus Sean, Dave and Jerome and others from Gaelic Games.

In November we exhibited at the Sports Ireland Innovation and Technology Summit. It was a fantastic event with some top-class speakers. Most importantly it was an opportunity to network with like-minded people from the Sports Tech industry in Ireland.

What does 2024 have in store?

2024 promises to be another busy year. We are kicking off January with a trip to Florida to exhibit at the NFHCA (National Field Hockey Coaches Association), where we will be showcasing the best of TeamOppy functionality including Hockey Manager Mode. This is a great opportunity to meet with coaches from across the USA as well as other companies in the industry as we build out our network.

Feature wise, we have some top-class stuff in the pipeline. Right now, we have 2 new rotation options in beta testing, which will elevate Hockey Manager Mode to a totally new level. We are also very focused on data and video management with more developments coming for both local and cloud storage.

We have a range of items on the “ToDo” list, including enhanced and advanced options in the Video Studio, more visualisation options in the Dashboard, things like Pass Networks, Heat Maps etc… while continuously improving the user experience in all aspects of the platform. Plus much much more...

We will also be developing configurations for other Sports (Lacrosse is coming soon) and improving on existing configurations. We are looking forward to building the user base in existing sports across all regions and have TeamOppy become a household name across the Sports Industry.

Wrapping Up

Many thanks to all those who have contributed to TeamOppy in any way, whether it is providing feedback (good and bad!), collaborating on new features or simply subscribing to one of our packages. Your support is very much appreciated.

One of the great things about working in this area is that we get to speak to sports people, coaches, analysts, managers on a day-to-day basis. We wish everyone an enjoyable holiday period and look forward to working with you all again in 2024!

Peter (Owner & Developer of TeamOppy Sports)