Chapter 12 Enhancing Decision Making 495
INTERACTIVE SESSION: TECHNOLOGY
Singapore Sports Institute Uses Analytics for SEA Games
Established in 2011, the Singapore Sports Institute
(SSI) is a specialist institute for sports science, medi-
cine, and technology with the aim of becoming a
world-class sports institute to transform sporting tal-
ent into champions. In August 2014, SSI created the
High Performance Sports (HPS) Analytics, Technol-
ogy, and Education Department with the objective
of leveraging analytics for sporting excellence in
Singapore. The department provides video and data
analysis of Team Singapore athletes’ performance
during both practice and competitions, and it aims to
educate the Singapore National Sports Associations
(NSAs) on how to use the technology in sports.
During training and competitions, athletes’ activi-
ties are captured using the Dartfish video platform
and then analyzed at the SSI based on input from
coaches and NSAs. The analysis is conducted using
specialized software called SimulCam and StroMo-
tion to compare an athlete’s performance with others
or to pinpoint deficiencies and shortcomings via the
process of tagging. Tagging is a way to identify and
categorize sports activities that impact performance.
Activities are categorized in four ways: creation, such
as kick, tackle, or turnover; categorization, covering
offense or defense, team or individual play; identifi-
cation of the specific players involved; and descrip-
tion, which includes the place where the shot was
taken, the outcome, etc. The tagging files and video
analysis are uploaded on a secure cloud platform to
be shared with athletes and coaches. Coaches can
also download the videos and discuss specific por-
tions of the game with their athletes by using the
relevant tags rather than watching the whole game.
Similarly, athletes can watch the videos to better pre-
pare themselves for practice or actual competitions.
The HPS Analytics Team used this system in
2015 during the 28th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games,
which were held in Singapore. The department’s key
objectives were to build a video management system
and a video repository of Singapore athletes as well
as other top athletes from the region. Through the
video management system, the department aimed to
integrate and streamline the processes of capturing
video footage of athletes, analyzing the videos, and
finally sharing the analysis with coaches, athletes,
and other stakeholders.
Before the games started, the team created a “Pre-
Games Report” with an analysis of Team Singapore’s
chances of winning medals in different sports; it
even made an analysis of individual athletes based
on their performance relative to their competitors
over a 12-month period. The HPS Analytics team
also worked closely with Team Singapore athletes
and coaches to develop tagging templates that were
then used to analyze the videos. The videos were
collected via the broadcast feed, analyzed, and then
uploaded online in as short a period as possible. For
example, as soon as an athlete’s event was over, the
video would be processed and uploaded to an online
video platform that only coaches and athletes could
access, via web browser or Dartfish’s mobile app. In
total, the team processed 1,297 videos with 745 hours
of footage covering 19 different sports. These videos
became part of the video database, and to enable an
efficient retrieval of videos, each video was marked
with relevant keywords and metadata.
In addition to the video analysis, the HPS team
also produced daily reports of Team Singapore’s
performance and sent them to key stakeholders and
senior management. The team also provided hourly
information on Team Singapore’s results as well as
the medal count. These details were also updated in
Qlik, an online business intelligence and data visu-
alization platform. End-of-the-day reports showed
Team Singapore’s performance against their targets
as well as a comparison with historical results. For
example, for the women’s discus throw, officials
could not only monitor the distance thrown but also
the athlete’s rankings over the years and compari-
sons with regional discus throwers. In addition, the
reports allowed the officials to drill down to key
information related to individual athletes, such as
the level of support provided and whether the ath-
lete was new or experienced.
Analytics made a huge impact on the success
of Team Singapore, which received 84 gold, 73
silver, and 102 bronze medals, placing Singapore
second behind Thailand. In addition, HPS received
496 Part Three Key System Applications for the Digital Age

numerous accolades, especially from NSAs, who
experienced first-hand the power of analytics and
thus became more amenable to working with HPS to
implement their own video management and analyt-
ics systems.
Sources: Channel NewsAsia. “SEA Games: Team Singapore Breaks
Records in Best Performance Yet,” Channel NewsAsia, June 16,
2015, www.channelnewsasia.com, accessed December 22, 2016; S.
Ian, “The Science Behind Team Singapore,” Yahoo Sports Website,
February 15, 2016, sg.sports.yahoo.com, accessed December 22,
2016; Sport Singapore, “SSI HPS Analytics,” Sport Singapore Website,
April 2015, www.sportsingapore.gov.sg, accessed December 22, 2016;
Sport Singapore, “Singapore Sports Institute—Building the Founda-
tion for Team Singapore’s Success,” Sport Singapore Website, Octo-
ber 30, 2015, www.myactivesg.com, accessed December 22, 2016; N.
Tan, “Getting a Winning Edge with Help of Data Analytics,” Today,
May 14, 2016, www.todayonline.com, accessed December 22, 2016;
“Case Study: Analytics at the 28th South East Asian (SEA) Games
2015,” in G. Fried and C. Mumcu (eds.), Sport Analytics: A Data-driven
Approach to Sport Business and Management (Routledge 2017).

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

1. What technologies are used by SSI? What is their
purpose?
2. To what extent was technology responsible for
Team Singapore’s success at the SEA games?
Explain.
3. Search the web for SimulCam and StroMotion.
How can these tools be used for video analysis?
4. Search the web for the role of big data in the Ger-
man team’s 2014 World Cup victory and compare
it with Team Singapore’s success at the SEA
Games.

Case contributed by Neerja Sethi and Vijay Sethi, Nan-

yang Technological University

operation, healthcare delivery, and public safety. What’s more, the ability
to evaluate how changes in one service affect the operation and delivery of
other services enables holistic problem solving that could only be dreamed of
a generation ago.

Operational Intelligence and Analytics

Many decisions deal with how to run the business of these cities on a day-to-day
basis. These are largely operational decisions, and this type of business activ-
ity monitoring is called operational intelligence. An example of operational
intelligence is the use of data generated by sensors on trains and equipment
by SNCF, which operates France’s rail services, including France’s high-speed
rail network. The railway network consists of about 32,000 km (20,000 miles)
of route and about 14,000 trains run daily. The sensors monitor data about
train speed, engine and train car functioning, and track conditions. SNCF
is able to analyze these data to reduce failures and improve the reliability of
trains, signals and tracks. Engineers can connect to running trains in real time,
enabling the company to figure out if a component is likely to fail, which could
lead to a train being taken out of service (Saran, 2016). The chapter-ending
case describes how General Electric (GE) is using operational intelligence to