Advanced Television

NHL, AWS debut advanced real-time stats

May 14, 2021

Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon company, and the National Hockey League (NHL) will debut two new advanced analytics during the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs. These new stats powered by AWS will appear as on-screen graphics and data visualisations during NHL games and aim ti give fans a better understanding and deeper appreciation of how their favourite players and teams perform during crucial moments.

The first two stats, shot analytics and save analytics, will debut on May 15th during the first day of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs and be used throughout the 2021-22 season.

The new stats, powered by AWS, use cloud technologies such as analytics, serverless compute, and media services to gather data from the ice in real time, analyse it, and visualise it for fans as graphics appearing on the broadcast. The NHL stats will illustrate player effectiveness on offense, a goaltender’s success during different phases of the game, and the evolution of player performance over the course of a game in creating or blocking shot opportunities under different game scenarios. This new level of insight will help generate additional excitement during key moments of games by highlighting just how difficult certain plays can be.

To build the new stats, the NHL and AWS drew from more than 10 years’ worth of data from the NHL’s Hockey Information and Tracking System (HITS), the League’s official system for recording game-time statistics. Leveraging AWS, the NHL will be able to combine this historical data with real-time game activity to give fans a new and unparalleled perspective on team and player performance.

“NHL fans are extremely tech savvy. They love the speed and skill of the sport and they crave more opportunities to understand and engage with the game and the players, and therefore, it’s important for us to use our data to deliver as many insights as possible,” said Dave Lehanski, Executive Vice President, NHL Business Development and Innovation. “AWS is the perfect partner for the NHL, helping us to aggregate our rich historical content and deliver real-time advanced analytics that will continue to transform the fan experience. The delivery of these stats will unlock opportunities for fans, along with players, coaches, and broadcasters, to see the game in new ways and to gain a deeper understanding of the strategic decisions made during a game.”

“We announced our partnership with the NHL earlier this year and already it’s bearing fruit with these advanced statistics for the Stanley Cup Playoffs,” said Rachel Thornton, Vice President, Worldwide Marketing at Amazon Web Services, Inc. “Working with the world’s leading sports leagues, we know that their fans love to dive deep into stats about their favourite players and teams. Hockey moves quickly, and hockey fans are hungry for greater insights into the game. Together, AWS and the NHL are providing audiences around the world the real-time context they need to better appreciate the tension and skill behind every play.”

These advanced analytics are the result of the new partnership announced in February when AWS was named the Official Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning Infrastructure Provider of the NHL. The NHL is also relying on AWS to automate and improve game video processing and content delivery.

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