Bulgarian Ubitrack scores with AI optical tracking and sports data 

By Pedro d’ El Rodrigues

The competitiveness of football nowadays obligates teams to invest in data analytics to reach better performances. The Bulgarian start-up Ubitrack provides a complete data set for clubs to analyze all different aspects of a match, utilizing artificial intelligence technology. Ubitrack’s Nikolay Tashev, spoke about the challenges of starting a business in a competitive industry and the obstacles his start-up has to deal with in today’s Start-up of the Day.  

How did you come up with the idea for the startup?

“My co-founder was building an app, and I was an analyst for a British company accessing football data. One of the executive directors of a big football club in Bulgaria was a friend of mine. He suggested to look into optical tracking of football games, because it was a growing trend. We did some research, and then we realized that this type of technology is still not well-developed. The companies were not using artificial intelligence but motion tracking software, which is not so accurate. 

So we started working on that area. It took us two years to develop our first version of the system. We then started working with an Italian GPS producer, one of the top GPS providers in Europe, providing clubs like AC Milan, Juventus, etc. They wanted to find an optical tracker provider to give us enough data. 

Last season, we proved that Serie A’s (Italian league) data and ours were identical. That was a big honor for our team. We proved to be as accurate as the top 5 leagues.”

Which problems did you have to overcome?

“We had two significant struggles. One of them was financial. We started running out of money and did not have the customers to keep the company going because AI experts are expensive.

The second struggle was the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020. At that stage, most sports competitions were stopped for four months. The revenue for the clubs fell because of the no stadium attendance. Even though we offer a very affordable service due to our technological advancements, that was a tough period. If there is no budget for services like ours, we go hungry. We used that period to improve some of our processes, which was beneficial in the long run but very stressful.

We never thought about stopping the company. We decided to move on until we went bankrupt and then deal with the consequences.” 

Was it hard to get financial support? 

“It is very hard in Eastern Europe. We had to go a long way to attract investments, which took much of our work day. For example, there was a company that started at the same time as us. They had a lot of contacts in Germany. The German football league actually invested five million euros in their company. Our investments were nothing compared to what those guys got. Then we got out first funding round from the Latvian venture capital called Overkill. They helped us finish the second version of our product, which was more marketable.” 

When did you start to get recognition?

“It was after we proved our accuracy. It all changed when one of the main sports data statisticians in Italy said we had quality data. That was a game-changer. After we got more quality videos from automated cameras of production companies, we could provide better data. Then we also started talking to companies in Colombia, Argentina, and Brazil, so the market really opened to us.” 

What makes your product better than what’s already on the market?

“First of all, the quality of the data. We proved to be better than some optical tracking providers, and we are very proud of that. Apart from that, we have reached a level of automation, making our services quite affordable. Lower-tier clubs and youth leagues can afford our services, but not the services from our competitors.” 

How do you see yourselfs?

“Ubitrack is a data provider. Data is the easiest form of information you can collect, but how you crunch it is a completely different thing. We extract data and provide it to either football clubs with data analytics departments or analytic companies that process the data for the teams. This is our position in the market: a data-providing part of the industry.”  

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How do you picture its future?

“Our goal at the moment is to work with 3D-reconstruction of football games. The whole industry can benefit from that. We had many companies developing 3D-reconstruction algorithms that concentrated on the visuals and graphics, making it more realistic, like the FIFA video game. But there is no 3D data out there. 

So, in the future, we believe there is a market for it. Mainly because the technology will get more affordable and easy to develop. We would like to be that provider for reconstructing a match in the metaverse.” 

How do you see AI technology in the football industry?  

“You can extract data from GPS trackers, like passes and shots on target, you name it. However, it has limitations. You cannot track other players; a club can only track its players, not the opponent, which is the best data source. These new optical trackers can track everything. We believe we are presenting something that is the missing link to give a full report of a match, a player, etc., and help the industry improve.”

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