German business software vendor SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) is going to the Super Bowl. As part of SAP’s partnership with the National Football League, SAP technology will be features as part of the league’s Super Bowl weekend festivities Feb. 2-3.
Many business people may be used to dashboards. Well, SAP has worked with the NFL to create an online analytics dashboard that will give fans insights around the selection of the NFL.com Fantasy Player of the Year for the 2012 season.
The dashboard (it’s now live ) exhibits the statistics of the top eight finalists in a visually rich format, based on on SAP-generated analytics combined with NFL.com fantasy football data. Users can run statistical comparisons of the eight finalists’ performances over the fantasy season, and compare a variety of metrics.
“Fantasy football fans love stats almost as much as watching the action on the field,” said SAP chief marketing officer Jonathan Becher, in a statement. “The SAP dashboard enhances the NFL.com Fantasy experience by distilling millions of data points and allowing fans size up their favorite players more easily. Soon fans will be able to use the analytical power of SAP to predict the most valuable players for their fantasy teams.”
Since last fall, SAP has been the official Cloud Software Solutions, Business Software and Business Analytics Software sponsor of the NFL.
SAP will also be in the media centre at the Super Bowl with the SAP Football Experience, which it describes as “a visually compelling analytics board” that will assist the media with interactive statistical comparisons, such as the ability to compare a team’s third quarter performance over the last 10 seasons with its performance in the current season.
Finally, SAP may not be able to claim neutrality at the Super Bowl. One of the competitors is the San Francisco 49ers, and SAP is a founding partner of its new Santa Clara Stadium. SAP says the new stadium will leverage fan information from sources such as Twitter, Facebook and 49ers.com to help integrate new applications and features within the stadium on game day. SAP tools are also assisting with the team’s football operations from scouting to player development.