Bloomberg Sports has a new data analytics partnership with Gala Coral

Bloomberg Sports has a new data analytics partnership with Gala Coral, one of Europe’s largest and most respected betting houses. Before I wrote this blog, I read about the Gala Coral Group in the new BSports press release and had no idea they even existed; most likely, most of you do not either. The Gala Coral Group is actually one of Europe’s pre-eminent betting and gaming businesses. So what does that mean for a Sports Techie? It means Gala Coral subscribers now have access to the world’s top sports analytical data produced by BSports Match Analysis sports technology.

Sports Business Partnership

The partnership will give Gala Coral subscribers free access to the advanced analytics data provided in the BSports Match Analysis football product.

“Coral is all about presenting the best possible products and services to help our customers,” said John O’Reilly, Gala Coral Managing Director. “Bloomberg Sports is the world leader in predictive analytics and the BSports Match Analysis product will be a hit with our customers.”

“We are very pleased to work with Gala Coral as our first soccer data analytics partner,” said Bill Squadron, President of Bloomberg Sports. “We expect the scientifically based projections, insights and statistics in our BSports Match Analysis product to be as popular with fans of football as our work with Major League Baseball has been in the United States.”

Match Analysis

The Match Analysis Beta version app called BSports Football, launched in September. It delivers advanced statistics and predictive analysis for the English Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, and Ligue 1. Built from in-depth analysis of current and historical data, Match Analysis provides predictive models on the winner, final, half-time score, and total goals, breaking down each of the key game factors as well as a host of original information designed to enhance the global football fan’s enjoyment and interest in the games of their choosing.

The app is available online at https://www.bloombergsports.com/football/ and on all mobile platforms at a retail price of four pounds per month. In early 2013, the BSports Football product will be fully operational and will include in-game projection and analytics updates.

Coral Gala Group – http://www.galacoral.co.uk/index.html.

Coral Gala Group brings retail shops with diverse market positions and well established brands, to this ground breaking sportsbiz arrangement with BSports.

The Group

The Group employs over 18,000 people across its various trading divisions. The Group operates leading retail brands including Gala Bingo, Gala Casinos, and Coral along with leading online brands including galabingo.com, galacasino.com and coral.co.uk. They also operate a chain of Eurobet shops in Italy.

The Group is a sports technology pioneer because they are the first gambling company to have received full GamCare accreditation across all of its divisions. Coral runs over 1,750 Betting Shops and has a team of  9,500 people dedicated to giving customers the best betting experience in the United Kingdom. The Group tagline is, “Enjoy the game but gamble responsibly.”

Divisions

According to their web site, Coral Interactive is the division responsible for the online, mobile and telephone operations of the Coral brand. As one of the United Kingdom’s leading ecommerce operations with over a decade of experience online it pride itself in offering its customers the widest range of betting and gaming products and opportunities.

Gala Bingo, the UK’s largest Bingo Operator runs 142 clubs.

Gala Casinos is a long established major player in both the London and provincial casino markets with 24 clubs across the United Kingdom and one multi-gaming complex in Gibraltar. Gala Casinos aims to be the number one choice for discerning players and a great place to work for the 2,560 colleagues which it employs. It has a loyal customer base of over 750,000 active members who enjoy over three million visits per year to its clubs across the UK.

Gala Interactive is responsible for the online operations of the industry leading Gala Bingo and Gala Casinos brands. Both sites offer the UK’s leading gaming proposition with a wide range of bingo, casino, poker and other gaming products.

Eurobet Italia is part of Gala Coral Group and runs over 400 betting outlets and a successful online operation dedicated to the Italian market since 2006 and employs around 90 people.

SportsBiz

According to an ESPN article and Interpol figures, “Sports betting has ballooned into a $1 trillion industry, 70 percent of which is gambled on soccer. The explosive growth reflects the rise of online gambling, which has turned local bookies into global merchants, flooded by money from every continent. Asian bookmakers alone see a $2 billion weekly turnover.”

BSports understands this ominous online gambling trend and decided to hold its first global sports technology event on September 19 at Bloomberg’s European headquarters in London. The techie event featured some of the most innovative thinkers in sports and technology, and served as the company’s formal entrance into the global sports industry after primarily focusing since 2010 on a highly successful sports analytics business in the United States in baseball (both on the consumer and the professional side) and American football (in the consumer marketplace).

“We are very excited to be able to help lead this discussion on the future of sports, data and analytics, and be able to formally introduce Bloomberg Sports to the marketplace beyond North America” Squadron said. “This event will be designed to encourage thought leadership on where all sports, from football to cricket to baseball, will be going in the future with regard to fan engagement and technological innovation, and we are looking forward to helping lead the charge in what we know will be a very bright future for the industry around the world.”

About BLOOMBERG SPORTS

Recently named by Mashable as one of its “Five Most Innovative Sports Brands for 2012,” Bloomberg Sports takes the technology developed by Bloomberg, the leading global provider in data  and analytics, and applies them to the vast data analysis opportunities in sports. Working with MLB.com and other partners since its launch in 2010, Bloomberg Sports fantasy products give fans the most powerful easy to use resources as they draft and manage their fantasy teams. Additionally, Bloomberg Sports provides a professional product that delivers Major League Baseball clubs with a secure, virtually unlimited set of analytical functions to assist them in personnel evaluation and game preparation and with a tablet application used by many professional players. Bloomberg Sports has also created products customized for broadcast use, as well as professional tools for several professional baseball organizations in Latin America and recently launched a consumer soccer product in Europe. BSports was also selected by The Sports Business Journal as a Finalist for “Best In Sports Technology” in 2012 and named as one of the “Most Innovative Companies in Sports” in 2011 by Fast Company Magazine.

About Gala Coral Group

Gala Coral Group is one of Europe’s pre-eminent Betting and gaming businesses with strong market positions and well established brands, both on the high street and online. The Group’s operations are primarily focused in the UK, and also Italy – the two most attractive gambling markets in Europe.

• Gala Coral operates through six businesses
• Coral is the third largest retail bookmaking business in the UK with a market share of approximately 23%
• Gala Bingo is the leading operator in the UK Bingo sector with an approximate market share of 45%
• Gala Casinos is the third largest casinos business in the UK with a market share of c.18%
• Eurobet Italia is the fifth largest bookmaker in Italy – on and offline – with an approximate market share of 7%
• Gala Interactive is a major online bingo and casino operator with galabingo.com its leading brand
• Coral Interactive is a focused online sports-betting business with coral.co.uk as its main brand
• Gala Coral is privately owned and each of its businesses have clear objectives underpinned by common strategic themes including developing a performance and results driven culture; customer focus and customer experience; operational intensity; ongoing product development and innovation; portfolio management; and, multi-channel development.
• In its most recent financial year – year-ending 29 September 2012 – the Group had revenues of £1,190 million and generated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £280 million.

Sports Techie, The world is changing quickly and with it, so too are legalized sports and gambling, all thanks to technological advancements. A trillion dollar industry is no joke, especially to FIFA. Can gamblers truly expect to win when according to ESPN, “Match fixing is now on par with drug trafficking, prostitution and the trade in illegal weapons.”

In my opinion, the BSports Match Analysis app can help gamblers win more by breaking down statistics, while also helping to identify potential Match Fixing. By predicting outcomes based on advanced scientific formulas, a 3-1 final score prediction now looks fishy when the games actual score turned out to be 7-1 in favor of the underdog.

Betters in the United States take note; Europe has created a new standard for gambling thanks to progressive laws and innovative companies like Gala Coral Group leading the way. BSports and other sports technology companies have identified the worldwide trend towards relaxed gambling rules and have creating proprietary big data Solutions, Systems and Apps, to meet consumer’s statistical analysis demands. At the end of the day, if you are a Sports Techie who likes to bet on the $700 Billion dollar global soccer (football) industry, try doing it at Gala Coral with the support of BSports Match Analysis for a new competitive edge.

I will see ya when I see ya, THE Sports Techie – http://twitter.com/THESportsTechie

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