At the elite levels of Premier League and American football, coaching has gone far beyond what is obvious to the eye.
Real-time data forms the basis for tactical decisions, but the additional insights fed by quality AI tools is now delivering the predictive levels of information that not only maximise team performance but prolong careers.
At the cutting edge of this sports revolution is Galway-based sports data company Orreco, which counts top Premier League clubs, NBA teams and NFL teams as clients.
Founded by sports scientist Dr Brian Moore and consultant haematologist Andy Hodgson in 2010, the company uses machine learning and data analytics to monitor the health of sportspeople, helping to accelerate recovery from injuries and prolong careers. Orreco’s team includes 17 PhD-holders, who have delivered more than 400 peer-reviewed scientific papers to date.
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Among its recent award-winning innovations is its AI-powered Te@m platform, which combines its established machine-learning algorithms with a software model that provides advance warning of illness and injury risk. The company’s work on this platform led to it winning The Irish Times Innovation of the Year award last November.
The innovations haven’t stopped. “Two of our recent big breakthroughs are Motion Signal and BARI,” says Dr Moore, the company’s chief executive. Both are designed with the help of AI large language models (LLMs).
Motion Signal helps to predict player injuries before they occur. “There’s a lot of people talking about AI and sport, but few are doing it. It’s so far beyond theory now, it’s deployed in our products,” Dr Moore explains.
“Large language models were a tipping point because people could finally get their heads around how this is practical.
“The biggest step change is that it’s saving our clients hours every day, bringing them insights in the right context at the right time.
“It’s telling us things that aren’t immediately obvious to the coaching eye. One example is motion. We’re seeing players’ movement behaviours anywhere from one to 11 minutes before they get hurt.
“We’ve just replicated our second study and with 87 per cent sensitivity you can see injuries.”
Its other new innovation, BARI, stands for benchmarking, analytics, reporting and inference.
“It allows teams to build customised reports, to surface the data in real time and send a report. Every Monday morning at 9am you can email the head coach with all the data.
“After every training session, our teams will get a report as to what percentage it is in terms of match-load equivalent. It’s very, very exciting.”
BARI has only just been introduced to the market, and Dr Moore is confident it will give Orreco clients an edge with better insights for managing training sessions and workload.
“We’re nowhere near a point where you will be deferring decisions to machines, but having a human in the loop is a really important step, and it’s helping this supported decision-making.”
One of the Premier League clubs that has worked with Orreco’s technology is Liverpool.
John Hill spent five years with Liverpool as first-team fitness coach in recovery, and as a personal development fitness coach.
In 2023, he became head of sports science at Saudi Pro League club Al-Ettifaq, the team managed by former Liverpool star Steven Gerrard.
Having worked with Orreco’s technology at Anfield, Mr Hill helped to bring it to Al-Ettifaq.
Speaking from his base in Saudi Arabia, Mr Hill says Orreco has been crucial in dealing with some of the unique challenges posed in the Saudi Pro League.
“It’s not just the heat, there are also extremes of altitude. We play several games at 2,500m above sea level.
“Using things like the biomarker panelling that we can use with Orreco to assess iron levels, ferritin levels, potentially where players might need a boost or support to deal with those extreme conditions.
“With altitude, if you have reduced iron or ferritin, your oxygen-carrying capacity is lower, so that’s a bad thing for footballers. Assessing that ahead of time, having the ability to intervene and make some gains there is paramount for us.
“We can identify areas to support players’ performance. Things like their iron levels, recovery (how they are coping with the demands and extremes of temperature), we do testing at the start and end of preseason and panel testing throughout, with software from Orreco getting daily touch points from players on how they are coping with travel and training load, and what their response is to games.”
Another benefit of Orreco is it can offer a bespoke programme, which includes an app that players log into every day before arriving at training.
“We get an indication of where they are sore, how much they’ve slept, what their recovery score is, what their energy levels are. That is all filtered in prior to arrival, so we can set up for them.”
The squad at All-Etiffaq ranges from Champions League winners and those who have played at top European clubs, such as Georginio Wijnaldum and Moussa Dembélé, to players at the start of their careers.
Mr Hill says some may not be used to performance programmes. However, the fact Orreco is used by top Premier League clubs makes it more attractive to them.
Dr Moore points to recent FIFPro studies that have shown an increasing level of top-level footballers playing with injuries.
He sees the work of Orreco as making “play through the pain” a term of the past. Dr Moore adds that recovery is more important than ever for top level athletes.
“Our experience is that the best athletes, the ones who win, ultimately are the ones who recover the best.
“That principle underpins everything we are doing, the only thing that’s changed is the data has exploded.”
He says “hyper-personalisation” is another aspect that makes their technology unique.
Dr Moore traces this back to his first client, Sonia O’Sullivan, whom he worked with before the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
He says Orreco differs from rival companies, as their end goal has always been insights rather than just data collation.
Three more Premier League clubs recently signed on with Orreco, meaning the Irish company is now working with over half of the teams in the English top-flight of football.
“The sports analytics market is exploding. Everyone has data now, but the premium is the insights. That’s our edge.
“A lot of sports companies are focused on aggregating data, we went the other way and focused on the harder problem I felt of surfacing the insights.”
In terms of biomarkers, a pinprick blood test can now give extensive details on athletes.
Haematology has always been a huge part of Orreco’s work, something which Dr Moore is proud of as it has not always been “en vogue” for sports analysis companies.
“If you go to A&E they’ll run a blood panel, to see what’s going on.
“Biomarkers give us a further element. It used to be a blood sample every four weeks, now we can do a pinprick sample and get results in four minutes.
“By the time players have done their warm-up, we can tell if they’re ready to go.”
Along with Biomarkers and the Recovery Lab, the FitrWoman app allows women athletes to record physical and mental symptoms and wellbeing.
Dr Moore is proud that women’s sports has been prioritised from the beginning at Orreco.
He recalls a meeting with a Formula 1 engineer as a moment that reminded him of the real impact of Orreco’s work.
“I was talking to an F1 engineer who was joining us. I asked him why, and he said, ‘this is so much harder than Formula 1′.
“I asked why is that, from his perspective, and he said, ‘because it’s the human body, with F1 we know the cars, the tracks, the materials ... the body is so complex’.
“That’s something that has always stuck with me. It’s easy to forget how amazing our bodies are, and if we can use information to look after them, that’s the future really.”
The Irish Times is inviting Ireland’s entrepreneurs to join the ranks of Orreco and enter this year’s Innovation Awards.
Now in its 15th year, the awards celebrate innovation in every sector of Irish society and business.
Over the years, finalists have varied from college spin-outs and kitchen table start-ups through to major corporates, charities and sporting/cultural organisations. The common thread through all is that they have delivered positive change with an innovative product or process.
This year’s awards are split into five categories and entry is free and easy. Simply answer our short questionnaire after registering at irishtimes.com/business/innovation/innovation-awards/
The overall winner will receive an advertising package with The Irish Times as well as a UCD Smurfit Executive Development scholarship for three from a selection of their short courses for executives commencing in 2024/25 Academic Year.
