American Football analytics company Pro Football Focus targets European expansion

US Football Analytics company providing game and player insights to NFL and NCAA teams, Pro Football Focus (PFF) today announced its expansion into Europe with a diversification of its core products to service the US & European soccer market with its first club-focused product slated to launch next month.

The development of a suite of soccer products will is expected to create 21 remote full-time and 175 seasonal analyst roles in Ireland over the next three years.

Founded in the UK in 2009, PFF analyses player performance, ranks/grades players and assesses overall team performance. These insights can be accessed by customers through though a subscription-based platform. In 2011, PFF began providing customised customized data monitoring services for three NFL teams.

PFF now supplies data for all 32 NFL teams, more than 100 NCAA football teams and seven CFL teams. Other notable customers include NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Fox Sports and EA Sports.

The European launch follows the Aer Lingus Classic between the Northwestern Wildcats and the Nebraska Cornhuskers, both clients of PFF, at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

The decision to establish an operation in Ireland was primarily driven by the availability of talent and the flourishing sports tech ecosystem here.

Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise Trade & Employment Leo Varadkar said: “Pro Football Focus is a really welcome addition to the growing sports tech sector in Ireland. These are exciting and interesting roles in software development, data collection and analysis in an international sports analytics company. I’m particularly pleased to see the company provide remote working opportunities – it’s important to give employees the option, where possible and the Government is putting in place the infrastructure to support that choice. It also allows PFF to recruit from a rich talent pool, across the entire country. I wish the team at PFF the very best with this expansion.”

Recruitment for a number of full-time and seasonal roles is now underway. To explore opportunities with PFF, visit https://www.pff.com/jobs

Nate Gerstle, GM Soccer Operations at PFF said: “Ireland will play a key role in PFF’s expansion into the beautiful game. Its strategic location, the availability of skilled labour, and rich history of achievements in science and technology are among the many reasons why our management team chose Ireland. To say nothing of the fact that the environment is simply welcoming; Ireland is encouraging PFF’s success, and our team wants to return that success in-kind.”

Mary Buckley, Executive Director, IDA Ireland said: “PFF’s decision to have a European presence in Ireland, is welcome news. A household name in the US, PFF is a significant addition to Ireland’s emerging sports tech cluster. I’d like to wish the team every success with this expansion.”