Startups in Russian football: they exist
The phrase “Russian football” is still relatively rare to cause compatriots a sense of pride. The sports failures of the Russian team and clubs over the past decade have managed to turn into a meme. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Russian specialists know about Russian football technology startups. This post is dedicated to both promising and fully implemented projects directly related to football.
Despite the close attention from the media, football tech startups in Russia are rarely attributed to achievements. Meanwhile, many projects are worthy of becoming, if not an object of national pride, then at least evidence of success in the technological field or an example of successful implementation of a fresh idea. In my opinion, projects can impress both enthusiastic football fans and people who are not indifferent to technology. So, this post is about four notable Russian football startups covering areas such as robotics, sports analytics, video electronics and promising training techniques.
Smart trainers for football players have been around for a relatively long time. As a rule, these are rather large arena robotic and interactive complexes with various training modes. The bottom line is that in a limited space, an air gun sends the player a ball (at different speeds and along different trajectories), which the athlete must hit in a strictly defined area. The system is able to evaluate the results and build analytical charts. So in 2012, The Footbonaut appeared, the first complex of this type. It is known that today this simulator helps to prepare athletes of the Borussia Dortmund club.
In Russia, an analogue of The Footbonaut, a simulator called FootBot, was created by residents of the Novosibirsk academic campus. Judging by the videos available on the network and the stories of the creators of FootBot, the domestic development is not inferior to the German one, while it costs five times cheaper.
FootBot CEO Vladislav Kuznetsov in an interview for Rusbase talked about the fact that initially (in 2014, when the development began), a billiard simulator was planned. A year later, the idea was scaled and turned into FootBot. It is known that Vyacheslav Komkov, the curator and trainer of the Sibir children's football club, who once played for the youth national team of Russia, turned the billiard project into a football one.
It is Komkov who is the author of many football ideas, and most importantly, the training methodology laid down in the training complex. The rest of the team worked more on technical implementation.
Four years of work made it possible to realize the following technical capabilities and characteristics:
For comparison, the German analogue is nominally superior to FootBot in the number of guns, there are 8. Therewith, at a cost 5 times higher than the Russian simulator, this complex is inferior to the domestic one in a number of other significant indicators. For example, the number of targets in a German simulator does not exceed 72. For a subjective comparison, ideally try one and the second in person. Due to the fact that I did not have such an opportunity, I propose to evaluate the promo on YouTube:
The footbonaut
Footbot
The demo video released by the Novosibirsk developers is impressive, however, despite this, the project is still difficult to unequivocally call successful from a commercial point of view. Creating a simulator was easier than selling it. At the moment, it is used at the Academy of FC Krasnodar, where the prototype appeared back in 2016.
It was more difficult with foreign customers. According to Vladislav Kuznetsov, foreign clubs are focused on products that have representative offices and service in their country. It is almost impossible to sell the complex abroad without service centers. It remains to hope for Russian clubs, which are often not financially ready for acquisitions of this kind.
As a result, they came up with the idea to reorient the complex for the sports and entertainment industry. Various “truncated” solutions for entertainment facilities have already been developed, for example, a single-gun version with one wall with eighteen targets. Project managers note that financing from commercial entertainment options will improve the professional complex.
During the broadcast of football matches, not many people think about how they manage to get a picture from the field. Some shots and close-ups of players are removed in such a way that the idea involuntarily arises that the operator is running around the field with the teams. Not everyone knows that colorful and spectacular football is shot by the so-called spider cameras. Cameras placed on special cables that are worn over the stadium with a speed of up to 10 m / s. Even fewer people are aware that one of the best cameras of this type is produced in Russia. These are Robycam cameras manufactured by the Russian company Movicom.
Many may doubt and wonder: what, in fact, is Russian in these cells? According to the manufacturer, they produce winches, all the mechanics, electrical switching, they write there special software for controlling the device, in fact they create a control center. The company also creates part of the cables along which the equipment moves. The cameras themselves are bought in Japan.
The cameras are being assembled in Russia, in particular, in Moscow and Kaluga. More than 70% of the details for creating the camera are also Russian. The company believes that despite the common belief that “it’s good where we are not,” there are things that do better in Russia than in other countries. In particular, the founder of the company, Viktor Pakhomov, often cites carbon fiber as an example, which consists of a part of the camera body. According to him, the best samples of those that they saw are made in Russia. Interestingly, the case, or rather its mass, is one of the competitive advantages of Movicom products. So their “spider” together with the camera weighs 5 kg less than that of the competitor closest in characteristics.
Thanks to its capabilities, Robycam is used not only for football. So the camera was used at the World Ice Hockey Championship in Denmark, the championship of the planet in water sports, several stages of the Biathlon World Cup, Wargaming Grand Finals, the Paralympics in Sochi, as well as at various unsportsmanlike events and major concerts.
From the revelations of the founder of the project for sport-connect.ru it is known that the cameras also started as a bold technological stratum and went through a thorny path. For example, in 2009, with an early version of these devices, Channel One filmed the match Spartak - Zenit in Luzhniki. There were problems with batteries and color rendition, which could deplorably affect the reputation of Movicom and drown a promising project, but nothing happened.
The creators of the camera systematically promoted the project through exhibitions, as well as participation in everything that they managed to participate in. The abundance of events and feedback from customers allowed us to constantly improve the project, which ultimately made it one of the best in the world. Currently, only 15 Robycam spider cameras are installed in the world. The company claims that the cost of one complete system for a football stadium with installation costs the customer 300,000 Euros.
Teqball is a project that can hardly be called a technology startup, but which is also hard to miss, describing successful Russian football-related innovations. The principle itself is innovative, on which the simulator is based, which creates a kind of symbiosis of table tennis and football.
Teqball is produced by the Russian company 316lab, using the same developed technology, and today it is considered one of the most popular simulators for the development of football equipment and the psychophysical capabilities of athletes. Manufacturers convinced many well-known clubs that the innovation allows football players to develop endurance, hone the technique of ball possession, practice head and foot kicks and train concentration.
Teqball resembles a ping pong table, the edges of which are bent down at a specially calculated angle, from the grid to the player. Training, as I already noted, is a cross between ping-pong and football, although it’s perhaps easier to understand from the video:
To date, Teqball has been integrated into the training programs of six national football teams and more than 40 football clubs. At the 2018 World Cup, the simulator was used by the teams of France, Croatia, Belgium and Brazil.
What will happen if we create a global index of professional football players and present it as an online service? That's right - you get the Instat Index. This service is part of a comprehensive platform for assessing athletes, which is created by Alexander Ivansky and his sports analytics company Instat since 2007. Today it is one of the few objective unique indices trusted by coaches Carlo Ancelotti, Rafael Benitez, scout departments of many famous clubs.
A unique indicator of a football player’s index is calculated using an automatic algorithm that takes into account the player’s contribution to the team’s victory and the significance of his actions on the field. The calculation takes into account the level of the opposing team, the importance of the championships in which the athlete performs. All data of the algorithm are objective. In the future, the rating is published in InStat Football Scout, and is also used by other services and resources.
Each parameter is assigned a specific coefficient, it is also calculated and changed in accordance with the number of certain actions and events in the match. For each position, from 12 to 14 coefficients are assigned. The weight of the coefficients varies depending on the position of the player on the field. For example, forwards errors affect index less than central defenders errors.
This is due to the fact that they statistically more often lead to fatal consequences for the match. Then the odds are multiplied by the average value, which is calculated based on the statistics of matches around the world. To calculate the index, it is necessary for the player to play a certain number of matches and perform the minimum required number of actions on the field.
Thus, the system makes it possible to assess the level of the athlete on the basis of objective data, compare the value of the legionnaire and data on its effectiveness, see progress and lack of development. The service can be used as an additional tool that gives the coach information about how much the player is ready to play for the main squad, whether it makes sense to raise his fee, whether the player needs a team. During its existence, the Instat Index has grown from a “curious project” into a full-fledged scouting tool, one of the most reputable indexes in Europe, which brings real income.
In Russia, there are many startups related to football, varying degrees of technology, completeness and success. We have described only the most noticeable. Almost all such projects have a peculiarity - they do not start to generate profit immediately, after a very long time, and some do not start at all. This is partly due to the dampness of the implementation of talented ideas that are regularly visited by domestic developers. But even to a greater extent this is affected by the inability of Russian sports startups to sell their products.
In the harsh conditions of the market, only those who adapt the product to the market survive, and painstakingly bring the project to its requirements, find the resources, strengths and opportunities for this. The sports industry, and in particular football, are those markets that do not forgive even those mistakes that could possibly result in consequences in some other industry. Despite the sometimes vague prospects, existing domestic football startups are worthy of close attention and may well be associated with something successful and significant both for their creators and for Russian sports in general.
The post used photos and videos:
fckrasnodar.ru/team/video/object/?object_id=130966
rb.ru/longread/footbot
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cYxsrWzq0o
sportautomatics.ru
sport-connect.ru/interview/movicom
www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/world-cup/11072103/watch-neymar-and-fellow-brazil-stars-play-teqball
twitter.com/alextruica/status/953707931689803776
Despite the close attention from the media, football tech startups in Russia are rarely attributed to achievements. Meanwhile, many projects are worthy of becoming, if not an object of national pride, then at least evidence of success in the technological field or an example of successful implementation of a fresh idea. In my opinion, projects can impress both enthusiastic football fans and people who are not indifferent to technology. So, this post is about four notable Russian football startups covering areas such as robotics, sports analytics, video electronics and promising training techniques.
FootBot - a robot simulator from a billiard player and children's trainer
Smart trainers for football players have been around for a relatively long time. As a rule, these are rather large arena robotic and interactive complexes with various training modes. The bottom line is that in a limited space, an air gun sends the player a ball (at different speeds and along different trajectories), which the athlete must hit in a strictly defined area. The system is able to evaluate the results and build analytical charts. So in 2012, The Footbonaut appeared, the first complex of this type. It is known that today this simulator helps to prepare athletes of the Borussia Dortmund club.
In Russia, an analogue of The Footbonaut, a simulator called FootBot, was created by residents of the Novosibirsk academic campus. Judging by the videos available on the network and the stories of the creators of FootBot, the domestic development is not inferior to the German one, while it costs five times cheaper.
FootBot CEO Vladislav Kuznetsov in an interview for Rusbase talked about the fact that initially (in 2014, when the development began), a billiard simulator was planned. A year later, the idea was scaled and turned into FootBot. It is known that Vyacheslav Komkov, the curator and trainer of the Sibir children's football club, who once played for the youth national team of Russia, turned the billiard project into a football one.
It is Komkov who is the author of many football ideas, and most importantly, the training methodology laid down in the training complex. The rest of the team worked more on technical implementation.
Four years of work made it possible to realize the following technical capabilities and characteristics:
- Manege with an area of 225 square meters .;
- Continuous automatic balls;
- 4 guns, one on each wall of the complex;
- maximum speed of relegation of the ball: 150 km / h;
- the ability to fix the flight of the ball at speeds up to 300 km / h;
- gun tilt angles: from 0˚ to 30˚;
- right and left ball twisting;
- from 64 to 216 targets with LED indication, depending on configuration;
- Ability to work with the leading and non-leading side of a football player;
- The ability to install any coating on request.
For comparison, the German analogue is nominally superior to FootBot in the number of guns, there are 8. Therewith, at a cost 5 times higher than the Russian simulator, this complex is inferior to the domestic one in a number of other significant indicators. For example, the number of targets in a German simulator does not exceed 72. For a subjective comparison, ideally try one and the second in person. Due to the fact that I did not have such an opportunity, I propose to evaluate the promo on YouTube:
The footbonaut
Footbot
The demo video released by the Novosibirsk developers is impressive, however, despite this, the project is still difficult to unequivocally call successful from a commercial point of view. Creating a simulator was easier than selling it. At the moment, it is used at the Academy of FC Krasnodar, where the prototype appeared back in 2016.
It was more difficult with foreign customers. According to Vladislav Kuznetsov, foreign clubs are focused on products that have representative offices and service in their country. It is almost impossible to sell the complex abroad without service centers. It remains to hope for Russian clubs, which are often not financially ready for acquisitions of this kind.
As a result, they came up with the idea to reorient the complex for the sports and entertainment industry. Various “truncated” solutions for entertainment facilities have already been developed, for example, a single-gun version with one wall with eighteen targets. Project managers note that financing from commercial entertainment options will improve the professional complex.
Movicom - spider camera
During the broadcast of football matches, not many people think about how they manage to get a picture from the field. Some shots and close-ups of players are removed in such a way that the idea involuntarily arises that the operator is running around the field with the teams. Not everyone knows that colorful and spectacular football is shot by the so-called spider cameras. Cameras placed on special cables that are worn over the stadium with a speed of up to 10 m / s. Even fewer people are aware that one of the best cameras of this type is produced in Russia. These are Robycam cameras manufactured by the Russian company Movicom.
Many may doubt and wonder: what, in fact, is Russian in these cells? According to the manufacturer, they produce winches, all the mechanics, electrical switching, they write there special software for controlling the device, in fact they create a control center. The company also creates part of the cables along which the equipment moves. The cameras themselves are bought in Japan.
The cameras are being assembled in Russia, in particular, in Moscow and Kaluga. More than 70% of the details for creating the camera are also Russian. The company believes that despite the common belief that “it’s good where we are not,” there are things that do better in Russia than in other countries. In particular, the founder of the company, Viktor Pakhomov, often cites carbon fiber as an example, which consists of a part of the camera body. According to him, the best samples of those that they saw are made in Russia. Interestingly, the case, or rather its mass, is one of the competitive advantages of Movicom products. So their “spider” together with the camera weighs 5 kg less than that of the competitor closest in characteristics.
Thanks to its capabilities, Robycam is used not only for football. So the camera was used at the World Ice Hockey Championship in Denmark, the championship of the planet in water sports, several stages of the Biathlon World Cup, Wargaming Grand Finals, the Paralympics in Sochi, as well as at various unsportsmanlike events and major concerts.
From the revelations of the founder of the project for sport-connect.ru it is known that the cameras also started as a bold technological stratum and went through a thorny path. For example, in 2009, with an early version of these devices, Channel One filmed the match Spartak - Zenit in Luzhniki. There were problems with batteries and color rendition, which could deplorably affect the reputation of Movicom and drown a promising project, but nothing happened.
The creators of the camera systematically promoted the project through exhibitions, as well as participation in everything that they managed to participate in. The abundance of events and feedback from customers allowed us to constantly improve the project, which ultimately made it one of the best in the world. Currently, only 15 Robycam spider cameras are installed in the world. The company claims that the cost of one complete system for a football stadium with installation costs the customer 300,000 Euros.
Teqball - head and legs
Teqball is a project that can hardly be called a technology startup, but which is also hard to miss, describing successful Russian football-related innovations. The principle itself is innovative, on which the simulator is based, which creates a kind of symbiosis of table tennis and football.
Teqball is produced by the Russian company 316lab, using the same developed technology, and today it is considered one of the most popular simulators for the development of football equipment and the psychophysical capabilities of athletes. Manufacturers convinced many well-known clubs that the innovation allows football players to develop endurance, hone the technique of ball possession, practice head and foot kicks and train concentration.
Teqball resembles a ping pong table, the edges of which are bent down at a specially calculated angle, from the grid to the player. Training, as I already noted, is a cross between ping-pong and football, although it’s perhaps easier to understand from the video:
To date, Teqball has been integrated into the training programs of six national football teams and more than 40 football clubs. At the 2018 World Cup, the simulator was used by the teams of France, Croatia, Belgium and Brazil.
Instat Index
What will happen if we create a global index of professional football players and present it as an online service? That's right - you get the Instat Index. This service is part of a comprehensive platform for assessing athletes, which is created by Alexander Ivansky and his sports analytics company Instat since 2007. Today it is one of the few objective unique indices trusted by coaches Carlo Ancelotti, Rafael Benitez, scout departments of many famous clubs.
A unique indicator of a football player’s index is calculated using an automatic algorithm that takes into account the player’s contribution to the team’s victory and the significance of his actions on the field. The calculation takes into account the level of the opposing team, the importance of the championships in which the athlete performs. All data of the algorithm are objective. In the future, the rating is published in InStat Football Scout, and is also used by other services and resources.
Each parameter is assigned a specific coefficient, it is also calculated and changed in accordance with the number of certain actions and events in the match. For each position, from 12 to 14 coefficients are assigned. The weight of the coefficients varies depending on the position of the player on the field. For example, forwards errors affect index less than central defenders errors.
This is due to the fact that they statistically more often lead to fatal consequences for the match. Then the odds are multiplied by the average value, which is calculated based on the statistics of matches around the world. To calculate the index, it is necessary for the player to play a certain number of matches and perform the minimum required number of actions on the field.
Thus, the system makes it possible to assess the level of the athlete on the basis of objective data, compare the value of the legionnaire and data on its effectiveness, see progress and lack of development. The service can be used as an additional tool that gives the coach information about how much the player is ready to play for the main squad, whether it makes sense to raise his fee, whether the player needs a team. During its existence, the Instat Index has grown from a “curious project” into a full-fledged scouting tool, one of the most reputable indexes in Europe, which brings real income.
Total
In Russia, there are many startups related to football, varying degrees of technology, completeness and success. We have described only the most noticeable. Almost all such projects have a peculiarity - they do not start to generate profit immediately, after a very long time, and some do not start at all. This is partly due to the dampness of the implementation of talented ideas that are regularly visited by domestic developers. But even to a greater extent this is affected by the inability of Russian sports startups to sell their products.
In the harsh conditions of the market, only those who adapt the product to the market survive, and painstakingly bring the project to its requirements, find the resources, strengths and opportunities for this. The sports industry, and in particular football, are those markets that do not forgive even those mistakes that could possibly result in consequences in some other industry. Despite the sometimes vague prospects, existing domestic football startups are worthy of close attention and may well be associated with something successful and significant both for their creators and for Russian sports in general.
The post used photos and videos:
fckrasnodar.ru/team/video/object/?object_id=130966
rb.ru/longread/footbot
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cYxsrWzq0o
sportautomatics.ru
sport-connect.ru/interview/movicom
www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/world-cup/11072103/watch-neymar-and-fellow-brazil-stars-play-teqball
twitter.com/alextruica/status/953707931689803776
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