Sports analytics keeps the wind in SAP's sail

WITH the sports industry in Asia starting to realise the potential advantage of analysing the data they collect, German enterprise software major, SAP, thinks it has an opportunity to showcase its star product, Hana's real-time and predictive analytics capabilities.

According to Kurt Bilafer, the recently-appointed global head of predictive analytics for SAP, sports and entertainment represents the German software company's 25th and latest vertical when it was announced in May 2013.

Since then, it has made strides in pitching Hana to various sports associations in North America and Europe, such as the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) in the US, and also the German Football Association.