Wyscout is an Italian company that supports football scouting, match analysis and transfer dynamics. The company was founded in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in 2004,Scouting enters brave new world as clubs step up search for talent
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' (13 December 2012) and it is located in

Chiavari Chiavari (; lij, Ciävai ) is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, in Italy. It has about 28,000 inhabitants. It is situated near the river Entella. History Pre-Roman and Roman Era A pre-Roman necropolis, which dates f ...

since January 2008. They provide video analysis tool and digital databases regarding performances and matches for coaches, teams and players dealing with football business. The purpose is to allow them have a detailed sight of a large number of athletes about individual performances, patterns of play and tactical strategy.

History

2004–2010: Early years, B2B commercialization

During the years 2004–2010, the company business was about on demand Football Matches Analysis, WebTVs, Advertising,

DVB-T DVB-T, short for Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial, is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in Singapore in Febr ...

TV broadcasting, and the Capello Index project. In 2008, the Wyscout company, received capital for the business development from the local area (

) businessman

Antonio Gozzi use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates = ...

. A very early version of the Wyscout Platform was released in March 2008. The company changed several names during the years 2004–2010 (Sport Video Service, Wisport, Wi, Wigroup, Wysport, WY, Wygroup) the final and current name of the company is Wyscout since May 2010. Wyscout Company Team as of December 2012 CC

Wyscout Company Team as of December 2012 CC

2010–Present: Growth

In 2010 the company published a new major release of its main product, Wyscout Platform 2 (website and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

versions); this was the release that made the product the visibility in the football scouting business now. In 2011, Wyscout organized the first Wyscout Forum, a football related event, in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. In August 2012, former

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Mario Monti Mario Monti, (born 19 March 1943) is an Italian economist and academic who served as the Prime Minister of Italy from 2011 to 2013, leading a technocratic government in the wake of the Italian debt crisis. Monti served as a European Commiss ...

said that Wyscout is "a good example of Italian Technological Company that made him remember what he saw during his past years in the

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

".Big Data gives pro sports scouts an edge
''

Silicon Valley Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States, Hemmings Motor News ...

'' (12 July 2012). Since 2015 the style and the fonts of the Wyscout logo are used by the Wylab (a coworking space based in

) due an agreement; even if the two subjects are not related at all.

Products and services

Wyscout Platform

Early versions

The Wyscout Platform is a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

containing information about footballers. It was published online in March 2008, with the name "Wiscout", and that version was called 0.1. The platform consisted in a website where it was possible to order DVDs via Express Courier and to browse the footballer stats as height, weight, etc. In December 2008, the company started to provide standalone online HTML webpages with an embedded online video player to stream the football matches requested by their clients (Wiscout 0.2). Wiscout Platform 0.3 was released and made accessible from

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS ...

in February 2009, there was the possibility to watch streamed football matches within the online platform, there was a small quantity of games available at the beginning.

Wiscout Platform

In Spring 2009, the company released Wiscout Platform 1.0 through customized

Set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...

es, it was possible to have access to the video database through an

HDTV High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...

. In Spring 2010, the name of the product was changed in Wyscout Platform.

Wyscout Platform 2

It was published online as a website on March 5, 2010. The

GUI The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

of this version was very different from the previous one, displaying flags of all the nations in the home page, and the submenus displayed lists of all the leagues, teams, and players of the selected country.

Wyscout Platform 3

Wyscout Platform 3 was released on March 5, 2012, via website and as an iOS App.

Wyscout 4

The latest main release is Wyscout 4, available as a website since June 2014.

Wyscout Forum

The Wyscout Forum is a B2B event where football agents, football clubs and players agencies deal together; it principally works as a hub of connection between them. The Wyscout Forum is generally held in the executive suites of football stadiums or hotels of global cities like London, Rio de Janeiro, Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Moscow and Milan. The first Wyscout Forum took place in spring 2011. As of April 2014, there have been nine editions of the Wyscout Forum. Wyscout Forum Summer 2013 Edition, Camp Nou, Barcelona, 5 July 2013

Reception

During the years 2012–2013, both ''The Guardian'' and ''The Independent'' wrote about the Wyscout Platform spending good words in reference to the dimensions of its database,From royals to the palace boy-scout by appointment
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' (14 August 2013). ''The Guardian'' also praised the possibility to spot potential skilled footballers using the online platform.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Wyscout Official Site
Online services Companies established in 2004 Sports management companies Association football websites