How AI, NFL Expertise, and Advanced Analytics Are Changing Football Intelligence

On this episode of the FSGA Podcast, we sit down with the team behind SumerSports, one of the most innovative football intelligence platforms in the industry. Built by former NFL executives, scouts, and engineers, SumerSports combines deep football expertise with cutting-edge AI and advanced analytics to analyze every player on every play.

Originally designed to help NFL and collegiate teams make smarter personnel and strategy decisions, SumerSports is now drawing attention across the broader sports ecosystem - including the fantasy sports and gaming industry represented by the FSGA.

We dive into how their technology works, why elite football minds are embracing data-driven decision-making, and what this next generation of football intelligence could mean for fantasy sports, sports betting, media, and fan engagement.

For people in the Fantasy Sports & Gaming world, this conversation offers a look at how advanced analytics and AI are shaping the future of sports data - and why platforms like SumerSports are becoming part of the industry's evolving toolkit.

https://sumersports.com/
https://thefsga.org/

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:06

Alright, welcome guys. We've got uh three big members from Sumer Sports today. Um tell us about what brought you to the FSGA conference this year.

SPEAKER_04 0:17

Sure, we can start off. Um I mean we built a platform in the B2B space originally, um which takes all types of information about football and brings it together into one centralized source. So you're talking about film and data analytics, AI representation with an LLM platform, um in again in the B2B market, and now we're looking at expansion into B2C and how we can help the fantasy and sports betting market. That's kind of why we're here, um, but we can go deeper as you as you want, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

But tell tell me about all those all the years of experience that you tell me last night about everybody wants to talk about the numbers.

SPEAKER_04 0:56

So we have um over 20 ex-NFL GMs, coaches, and scouts with 600 plus years of NFL and NCAA experience. So that's kind of a wealth of knowledge on the football side. Um and then from the technology side, we have people from Google, Cisco, Microsoft, and Meta with over 60 plus patents to their names. They're all kind of mashing that group together to create a single software platform for football teams in the in NFL and NCA.

SPEAKER_03 1:28

That's awesome. And over what was it, over 600 and 600 plus years?

SPEAKER_04 1:34

It's a lot of years, yeah. Not to date the team at all, but that's quite a lot of experience, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:40

Yeah, it's awesome. Um what brought the three of you guys together?

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Uh it's one of the coolest things I think about this company is that it uh I have worked in just sports broadcasting my whole career. And so traditional media pack. And if I'm not working, traditional, you know, I'm I'm talking to the same types of rooms, and the rhythm of the job is the same. And so what I found so cool about working with Sumer is that everybody has these diverse backgrounds, like he mentioned. So you've got the people from the scouting side with their 600 years of experience, um, many of which they were trained to specifically not answer my questions, right? They're like guarding all of their secrets. Um, and trying to, yeah, like don't answer that, don't give anything away. And now the best part for me is that they have to answer my questions because we're all on the same team. But then also you've got people on the data side. And so there's a full data department and people who are really, really good at math, which just the simple act of my saying it in that way tells you I am not, right? So um, and then, and then, like he mentioned, the people who came over from the tech side, I think are a really interesting component that, from a football standpoint, I think makes our company feel very different because there are a lot of companies that have either football experience or that have data analytics, that type of thing. There are very few people who are very successful in the tech business that leave tech to solve football problems. Like that's not a path that you see that frequently. And so the merge uh of all of these different people with different um experiences, you know, like AI, we have an AI developer I've been texting with today about some of the stuff. And it's just wild to have access to these people with these different um high-level experiences and expertise all come together into the same conversations to have the football conversations that I've frankly been having in my silo for a very long time, but now coming up with very different answers and paths to get to the answers that I would have never been able to come up with because I can't create tech tools. So it's so fun to say, like, you know what I'd really like to know before I answer a start sit question is these five pages worth of data points, I want you to run this through a computer. Like, if in a perfect world, these are all the questions I'd like you to consider before you tell me whether I should start B. John Robinson or Kyron Williams. Nobody has that. I understand. They're going similarly, you're starting them both, but my point is, right? And so now they're like, okay, let's go work on that. And I'm like, what? You can work on that? And so it's been really fun for me.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Okay. First, I'm throwing the BS flag on you not being a math person. Not a math person. Last night, you know, you're you're talking about when you're talking about players, you're talking about not just, oh, it's the Bengals and you know, their offense is gonna be great or whatever. You're talking about like EPA per play. Like you're talking about advanced stats.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Well, you have to, in order to see one of the things that I think is so great to understand is HP. Well, I don't know how to put together EPA per play. Like if you ask me to calculate it, I cannot. But I understand from years of talking to people who do know how to calculate it and then have done the data science behind it and understand that there's correlation. That's a word I've learned in the last couple of years about which stats actually matter and are predictive. And we just did a sticky stat series for our podcast, the Super Sport Show, um, where we kind of dove into some of the advanced stats and said, like for this position, these are the stats you want to look at now that we are just being inundated with advanced stats. Um, and then this one, it's different, that kind of stuff. So now I know where to look, couldn't do the math about how to come to the answers. But I think um from a from a fantasy standpoint, people who play fantasy in a serious way, which I would imagine is a huge part of your membership, they're looking for ways to find edges. And so my experience coming from traditional NFL media and going more into the fantasy space is that uh Kay Adams spoke earlier today, and she sort of mentioned this how fantasy in larger media companies and bigger platforms is looked down on. It's like, oh, that's just fantasy football. We're real NFL football or real, you know, college football or whatever. In my experience, working in both worlds, the analysts in fantasy are way better suited to answer your detailed questions. They know every roster better than your traditional NFL analyst because they have to, because they're looking for edges. And so fantasy people are looking deep in the weeds. They're like, whatever stat I can uncover or whatever data point I think I'm not alone in that prior to joining Sumer Sports and even still, I just sit in data pages and search for like what looks like an outlier, what looks like it's not what I would expect? How can I create a story around that? How does that inform my fantasy opinion? Do I want to take somebody higher in a fantasy draft than he's going because I think he's value? Well, what informs that decision? What makes people think that somebody is a better pick than uh like how do you define a value pick that's different for everybody? So you're looking for data points that will push you in that direction. And we think that we are in the process of building some tools that can help a lot of people in that area.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

So I'm I'm picturing the movie Moneyball and your Brad Pitt.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Okay, I'll be bad. Yes, Jonah Hill. End of story.

SPEAKER_03 7:13

That's in the scouts that are like, uh, he's he's got an ugly girlfriend, no confidence. So all those 60 years of experience, but like you blend it all in together and you make it work, right? And I I think this might be a John question, but like, how do you use Lindsay and the scouts' knowledge of what thank you for putting me in the same sentence as the scouts?

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Yes, it's Lindsay and the scouts, that's exactly what it is.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

Different angles, though, probably, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

No, you're right, you're right.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Of um what you should be focusing on to train the Cisco and Microsoft nerds um to uh create the right algorithms or to train the large language models or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Yeah, so I think from I and from the product perspective, I think it's always keeping an eye on like types of questions users are after, like in the case of fantasy, draft-related questions starts it. Um and so trying to get after like the core piece of information that they need to make that decision. And I think like Lindsay was saying, in a lot of cases, the industry, you almost get analysis paralysis because there's a site here and a piece of advice here, and someone's commentary uh commentary there. So we're trying to, I think, create a unique view on that. I think just with the analytics we have and the scouts, um, we are gonna be one more voice in that large C. But I think the tools and the products we're trying to use are help streamline that, I guess, and kind of bring it all together into an interface that's hopefully easier to digest than having to flip between this data table here or this data table there. And um, so yeah, that's what we're hoping to hopefully bring a lot of complex data and analytics um and insights into a simple-to-use interface where you can like easily digest it.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

How is your product changing as you're going from a B2B to a B2C product?

SPEAKER_04 9:04

I can start with that. I'm gonna just say that exactly what Sean just said. Um so much of what we've done for the bigger teams, NFL and NCA teams, is simplifying that data for them to create the edge that Lindsay was talking about. So we've already had experience in that way with taking this massive amount of multiple different applications and multiple data sources and simplifying it down to a simple topic. So that that's kind of our edge in B2B. And so creating that type of an experience in the B2C market without being able to simplify data. It's like, I mean, just like Lindsay said, I'm not a math guy either, but I understand the concepts that we're trying to look for. So I think if we can create it so that you know individual users, podcasters, fantasy people can go in and say, hey, I just need to understand what's out there. Um there's tons of information about how do I take the universe and simplify it to a simple galaxy, if you want.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

And do you think um as you're making that jump from B2B to B to C the first focus will be on maybe the influencers, the analysts, those people? Um and then people will understand, oh, I like that take where to get that from, and then eventually it goes out to the masses, or are you going straight to the the user?

SPEAKER_01 10:21

I think it's I think it's a it's a blend of both, but certainly the first part is a is a big component just to cut through the noise, right? So to a degree, I think that our tool um is one that is built to service a high-level user, like the die hard, sicko, fantasy, nfl, like I need all of it, right? Well, a lot of the people who check that box are content creators or need it for a purpose. Um, uh that's me in in in my former job and then even currently doing what I'm doing for them. So uh I think if we can find a way to service that person, then the hope is that eventually that becomes a, you know, uh according to Sumer Sports, this. Yes. And then it becomes um something that their audience becomes aware is also available to them and can again the start sit question. So ultimately you might just be looking for just just tell me Bijan or Kyron, right? Like, like some people are only like they don't care about the why. Yeah, but for me, I very much care about the why. And I think a lot of fantasy players want to feel like they are making the decision ultimately by themselves. And so when you say, okay, it's it's Bijan, and it here are the reasons, and they're next level reasons that have to do with matchup advantages or things that are different than the reasons last week and not just Kyron because he's I'm sorry, Bijan, we're going with Bijan for this answer. Uh Bijan because he's expected to score more points, right? Like that doesn't help me make a decision. I could have figured that out on my own. But if I'm telling you some talking points that you can really go, oh, that resonates with me. And then you also feel like when you're watching the matchup, now you're looking for this next level thing to happen. Right. Maybe you feel like a smarter fan when you go to a party. Maybe that is something that drives you. So uh, and then also a side uh um uh a side effect of that that's positive for us, we hope, and also the user is that it's sort of in the answers, the specific examples that are given can maybe inform the audience, like, oh, I could ask about that next time. Because that's a that's a data point that they have access to, because they told me that in my answer to a simple question. So uh that's a very long-winded way of saying all of the above. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:45

That's awesome. Um, where else um are you going to focus on trying to get these customers? Are you in any other events, uh fantasy football expo, just online?

SPEAKER_04 12:58

Yeah, all of all of the above. I think that the the biggest thing for us is you know, we're building these tools, and John and the team are building these tools at a rapid pace. So for us, it's more like how do we get them in the hands of users fast, right? Because there's so much technology that's being leveraged to create that such an edge. It's gonna I don't think it's gonna take us that long really to get them in front of people. It's more like we have a release dates that are coming this fall to get them in the hands of the users, and then I think we're just gonna see some pretty explicit growth of that. Do you want to add anything else to that?

SPEAKER_02 13:31

No, I think I just piggybacking on that last comment about because we talk about it a lot about who is our target persona and like which which kind of say customer statement do we want to focus on? I think Lindsay is exactly right. Is it it's the more sophisticated uh football mind who sort of knows to look up this stuff. Obviously, if they're using these types of tools, like they have a propensity to understand it and kind of go after it.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

Willingness to pay goes up. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

Yeah, but I think we do want to balance, like, definitely serve that community really well and go deep, but also make this type of data and information accessible to people who may not know to get to go after it to begin with. Yeah. Um, and so maybe you know they start more on a surface level and then we kind of take them down that rabbit hole of like, oh, by the way, there's this and this and this, but uh we make it easier just for them to access it and kind of digest it than maybe you get through like a stats table or something a little bit more, I don't know, number heavy.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

One of my passions right now is I feel like we're at an inflection point in football, period, because of the way that the the game is changing, but the way that we can evaluate the game is changing. Like the all of the advanced stats that are just blowing up. The tracking data, there's so many different ways that we can actually more accurately measure what's happening on the field and why it matters. And so, like I did a podcast recently where um I was talking about Aaron Rodgers, and they said, Well, you know, we did pass for the eighth most yards last year. And I was like, Whoa, okay. Stepping back, like I forget because I think we all kind of do, especially if you're in the hardcore fantasy space, you're like, I'm in a silo where we talk about football in a certain way. And then I step back and realize, like, of course, people are looking at passing yards and evaluating whether somebody is good or bad based on that, because that's what we've done for 60 years, right? Like it's only within the last five years that our ability to measure play has actually advanced dramatically. And so I'm so passionate about finding the best way to actually tell these stories more accurately and then finding ways to get that message out. And so, this is a way I think that some of that information becomes democratized because you might not even know that you're looking for it. You might get it anyway. That's the part where I'm passionate about it. Is like, so you ask a basic question and we're gonna sneak in a next level answer that's gonna educate you a little bit as a fan, so that we are as a whole NFL community. Um, this is not necessarily the goal of Sumer Sports, this is one of my goals, having smarter conversations about what we're looking at, right? Like you don't have to be when we say analytics and and it comes up in broadcast and they say analytics says go forward on fourth down. And I like want to pull my hair out. And I'm like, that's it's just probability. The probability is, you know, and so um I think that there are just ways right now where it feels very like us and them. And I think the more that you can get this information in a way uh that is digestible into the hands of them and not just us, then maybe the conversation we're having the same conversation where it's not go for it on fourth down, becomes a gut or a math. It's really a contextually, it's a it's a blend of both. Like it's all taken into account. And so let's have the right conversation moving forward about all of this stuff. And I think that there are ways that we can help push it in that direction.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

That's awesome. Cool. So this is y'all's first time at FSGA. Yeah, you've been here for about a day and a half now. How's the experience been? It's been awesome.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Great. Yeah. No, I mean the networking, I think we both uh did the speed networking yesterday, and we're probably a little bit exhausted from that still, but it's been great to have your voices come back. It's a little bit of horse from the shouting.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

The introvert in me walked into that room and was like, This is my nightmare.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

But it was great to hear a lot of people, and um, it's interesting for us because I feel like a lot of people, at least this is small sample size, it's my only conference, but you see a lot of people developing new innovations on the actual game types themselves. Um, and I think in a lot of ways, like we'll be, you know, a supplementary product and set suite of tools for their for their customers that are playing on those platforms to just come to us and understand how they make smarter decisions and then you know, hopefully win more on those platforms. So not directly related, but I think it's it'll be interesting as we kind of release some of our tools this year. And I think we'll be able to interface and help out a lot of the other FSG FSGA members building in the space.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

I also think it's been helpful too in ways that are like, you know, peel back the curtain, um, where it I think our company and then products within the company, it's a tough elevator pitch. I've found, I mean, I find for me in general, when people who who I know in my own world are like, so what are you doing now? I'm like, how do I start to explain this? Because they're like, it's so much easier to just be like, oh, I'm a sports broadcaster, or you know, I cover the NFL or whatever, which is actually what you don't want to tell anyone you don't know, because then that starts all of these other conversations. But point being, it's an easy, like I am in a certain lane, and now I'm not in a certain lane. I'm in like four lanes at once. And so it's tough. And so doing some of these conversations here, having them where we're having to say, like, who are you? What are you here for? And trying to get that into a compact message. Yeah, it I think it's really helped in terms of us trying to figure out how to message who we are as a company, what our products are, how they can help, and just kind of like trying that out on different people within the fantasy space who we do want to reach, yeah, but of different levels of expertise and or interest. And so I think that that's been really helpful. That's one of the things I've observed personally. Maybe it's just been helpful for me, but it has been.

SPEAKER_03 19:13

Cool. Yeah, and and has there been pretty good feedback on like based on questions? Like, I don't get it. Like hopefully better than that, but like you were like, what?

SPEAKER_04 19:26

Well, I think it's funny. We we're we're kind of trying to figure out what is the easy way to say it. And if you look at it as a repository of information that helps you to dissect all of these different channels that are coming in, like Lindsay, you were describing, like all these different apps you have to go to today to gather fantasy information. If instead you just say, well, Sumer helps you like kind of translate all of that into an easier to digest tool set, where you can actually go and just find information that's important and relevant to you.

SPEAKER_03 19:54

So you should have been an elevator pick. And you got two and a half minutes left.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

And done.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:03

Nei football rules. Um sorry, quite seven. Well, love that you guys are here. Uh we sorry I took a little extra time out of lunch uh than we were expecting, but really appreciate it. This was awesome. Um where can people find Sumersports?

SPEAKER_04 20:20

Like how Sumersports.com is a good place to start. Um we're obviously gonna be launching different products from that platform, but everything will always centralize back to Sumersports.com.

SPEAKER_03 20:30

Okay. Awesome. I'll appreciate it. And uh if you want to see more of these podcasts, go to the Fsj Fsg A.org and uh follow us on YouTube. And thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Thank you.