ARLINGTON, Texas—As the United Football League prepares to kick off its second season, the spring league plans to enhance its fan connection and experience with the help of artificial intelligence tools running on the Google Cloud.
The league today said Google Cloud will provide it with data analytics tools, including Big Query and Looker, that will enable the UFL and its partners to develop better products and services for fans, enhance the experience of watching games and help the league grow regardless of whether fans are in the arena or at home.
“Innovation from a business and football standpoint is a cornerstone of our league as well, and this collaboration provides us with the framework to build upon those innovations,” UFL President and CEO Russ Brandon said. “Through the UFL’s association with Google Cloud, the league is confident that reporting will not only be more accurate and efficient, but the solutions emerging from that data will lead to us being a more valuable sports entity.”
The league will collect comprehensive data from its ticket sales, sponsorship, marketing, consumer product sales and social media assets and leverage BigQuery, Looker and Gemini for Google Cloud models, the UFL said.
The UFL will also work with Google Cloud throughout the season to enhance its football analytic capabilities, it said.
“By better understanding their data with Google Cloud solutions, the UFL will be able to elevate the fan experience, in-person and virtually,” said Albert Lai, global strategic industries director for the M&E Industry at Google Cloud. “The UFL’s collaboration with Google Cloud is a great example of how organizing and unlocking the value of data with advanced data analytics tools and AI can impact both the football platform and fan engagement, and I look forward to seeing what happens in their second season.”
The 10-week UFL season begins March 28 at 8 p.m. (ET) with a matchup between the St. Louis Battlehawks and the Houston Roughnecks on Fox.
More information is available on the UFL’s website.
