The Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced that they have expanded their collaboration. Not only will AWS remain the DFL's official technology supplier, it will become the league’s official generative artificial intelligence (genAI) provider. The announcement was made at the recent SportsInnovation sports technology trade show in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Recently, I talked with the DFL’s head of strategic cooperations, Luccas Roznowicz, about the deal and where he sees things headed. He told me that the first four years of the collaboration with AWS were a process of getting to know each other’s capabilities and mindset.

“At this time, we have already had huge success developing products,” Roznowicz said. “The products include Bundesliga Match Facts, AI and real-time analytics.” He said many enhancements have been customer-facing and aimed to improve the football experience. However, the DFL provides this data to the clubs via Match Analysis Hub. This information can help clubs train, coach, and run the team better. Media partners can also use the data and analytics to understand trends and look for critical insights to highlight on the broadcasts.

With the expanded agreement, the DFL and AWS will focus on three areas:

1. Fan experience, including automated translation, personalization and localization.
   In the new agreement, Roznowicz said DFL will build a “platform together with AWS that is personalized, automated, and can speak to millions of global fans.” This is important in Europe, as many teams have one or two players from a specific country. Fans of that country will follow those players but want to experience the game in their native language. Generative artificial intelligence (genAI) is accelerating the pace of innovation in this area.
2. Media production, including cloud infrastructure and a moving image archive.
   “We want to establish a scalable, sustainable media production infrastructure that helps us to reach our goals on a global level,” Roznowicz said. Even though the DFL is a German league, because of the diverse nature of the sport media needs to reach everywhere.
3. Data services, including automated recognition of match events and use of the statistics portfolio, developed for the Bundesliga in other leagues.
   In this area, Roznowicz said: “We want to establish Sportec Solutions as one of the global leaders in sports data.” Sportec is a joint venture between Deltatre and DFL.

Specific details of the services are below:.

Every Bundesliga game feeds some 3.6 million data points via AWS analytics into Match Facts. Millions of fans around the globe can then access the facts to understand performance and game strategy. The Match Facts are organized into 15 categories, including goal scoring probability and expected goals (xGoals), keeper efficiency, ball recovery time, pressure handling, win probability, set piece threat, skill, most pressed player, attacking zones, average positions — trends, shot efficiency, passing profile, speed alert, average positions and shot speed.

Bundesliga has up to 20 cameras for automatic optical tracking of player and ball positions.

The DFL broadcasts in more than 200 FIFA member countries via satellite and fiber and offers cloud-based streaming. The partnership with AWS enables the DFL to deliver “clean” feeds with automated graphic inserts, advanced analytics and English-language graphics across all 206 Bundesliga 2 matches. The DFL says that the number of international broadcasts of Bundesliga 2 matches has more than doubled, with the reach quadrupling.

Bundesliga’s cloud-based media archive, the DFL Media Hub, uses AWS machine learning services. It can automatically tag specific frames from its more than 210,000 hours of video with metadata such as game, jersey, player, team, and venue. As a result, historical footage is easier to search for specific plays to replay in-game broadcasts.

The DFL has created a highly customized app experience for fans. Thanks to Amazon Personalize, when logged in, fans only see the content they’re interested in. The AWS tech arranges the content to appeal to the preferences of the individual fan. Customized video highlight compilations, driven by ML tech, are sent shortly after a match ends. The DFL says they’ve seen higher watch counts, increased retention rates, and longer sessions.

This technology is developing so fast, and it can give the fan an appreciation for the game — whether through analytics or a wider variety of viewing options. AI can be “game-changing” for fans as it lets the untrained eye of the casual fan see things only a trained eye could. For the hardcore fan, the analytics and data enable a much deeper level of engagement.

It feels like we’re just scratching the surface. Along with some other leagues in multiple sports around the globe, DFL, in partnership with AWS, is blazing a trail in using AI to change how fans experience the games they love. I'm looking forward to seeing what’s next.