30 years of Opta: Building the language of modern sport
The start of the 2026/27 season marks 30 years of Opta. Three decades in which data has transformed how sport is analysed, experienced and understood around the world.
Opta: the leader in data innovation
There was a time when the story of sport was told almost entirely from memory.
The final score. The headlines. The heroes. The moments everyone remembered.
Everything else disappeared with the final whistle.
Whether it was football, basketball, baseball, cricket, tennis or rugby, we
celebrated greatness largely through instinct and opinion.
We knew who won but rarely understood why. Over the last 30 years, that has changed forever.
Be part of the next chapterA new language for sport
Today, almost every sporting conversation begins with data. Broadcasters use it to explain tactical battles. Coaches rely on it to prepare teams. Analysts uncover trends invisible to the naked eye. Fans debate expected goals, passing networks, pressure intensity and win probability with a fluency that would have seemed unimaginable a generation ago.
The language of sport has evolved. Not because the games changed, but because our understanding of them did.
Every generation sees the game differently. Every era believes it understands sport better than the one before it.
Every generation sees the game differently
The 1990s brought the rise of detailed match statistics. Suddenly, there was more to a performance than the scoreline.
The 2000s saw data become part of mainstream broadcasting. Fans began to see the game through passing accuracy, possession and shot locations rather than simply goals and assists.
The 2010s transformed analysis again. Expected Goals challenged conventional wisdom. Data visualisations made complex performances accessible. Entire tactical philosophies became easier to explain because numbers provided evidence rather than opinion.
Today, artificial intelligence, computer vision and predictive models allow us to understand not just what happened, but what is likely to happen next.
The journey from counting passes to predicting outcomes has happened within a single generation.
Data didn't replace emotion. It enhanced it.
One of the greatest misconceptions about sports data is that it removes the romance from sport. The opposite has happened.
A last-minute winner will always feel dramatic in the moment. Data gives us the context to understand just how significant that moment was, how it changed a team's chances of winning a match, lifting a trophy or making history.
As Cristiano Ronaldo closes in on one of football's most extraordinary milestones 1,000 career goals, data allows us to tell a much richer story than the number alone. With every goal recorded and contextualised, we can trace how, where and when they were scored, the evolution of his game across different leagues and eras, and the remarkable consistency required to sustain that level of goalscoring over more than two decades.
The greatest individual performances are no longer remembered only through highlights. They are preserved through records, context and comparisons that allow future generations to appreciate them in entirely new ways.
Serena Williams' 23 Grand Slam singles titles will always define her legacy. But today's data allows us to look beyond the trophies, to understand the dominance of her serve, her ability to win the biggest points under pressure and how her peak performances compare with every generation that came before and after.
Across every sport, data has transformed great moments into lasting evidence. It allows us not only to remember greatness, but to understand it.
Data doesn’t replace the story. It reveals It.
Data has never replaced storytelling. It has given storytellers better stories to tell.
Opta has created a universal language for sport and perhaps the biggest change over the last three decades isn't technological at all.
It is cultural. Data has become the common language connecting every part of the sporting ecosystem.
A coach preparing for a final, a broadcaster explaining a tactical adjustment, a journalist searching for historical context. A fan debating the greatest players of all time, a fantasy manager choosing a captain and a betting operator informing millions of decisions in real time.
Although their objectives differ, they increasingly rely on the same foundation: trusted information.
Across football, basketball, tennis, cricket, rugby, baseball and countless other sports, data has become the invisible thread connecting every experience.
If the last 30 years have been about understanding what happened, the next decade will be about understanding what happens next.
The future of sports data
Artificial intelligence is already helping identify patterns no human could detect alone.Computer vision is revealing the movements between the moments.
Predictive models are changing how broadcasters tell stories before a game even begins. Personalised experiences will allow every fan to experience sport through the information that matters most to them.
Yet for all the advances still to come, one principle remains unchanged. Technology is only as valuable as the trust placed in the information behind it.
In an age of instant opinions and limitless content, trusted data has never mattered more.
Over the last three decades, sport has become faster, smarter and more connected than ever before. The games themselves remain beautifully unpredictable.
What has changed is our ability to understand them.
The next 30 years start with a moment
Thirty years ago, it was impossible to imagine how deeply data would become woven into the fabric of sport. Today, it shapes how games are analysed, how performances are judged, how stories are told and how millions of fans experience the moments that matter. And we are still only at the beginning.
For 30 years, Opta has been part of that journey, not by changing the sports we love, but by helping the world see them more clearly in a language they can understand and speak.
The next generation of sport will undoubtedly be powered by technologies we can barely imagine today.
But just as it has for the last three decades, every great sporting story will still begin with one thing.
A moment worth measuring.
30 years in. We’re just getting started.
For 30 years, Opta has helped change how the world understands sport, turning moments into data, data into stories, and stories into experiences that bring fans closer to the action.
But the next era will go further.
More data. Deeper intelligence. New ways to see, understand and experience sport.
And just as we have for the last 30 years,
Opta will be at the heart of it.
The next 30 starts now.
Be part of the next chapter
