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Stats Zone is back!

Good news - Stats Zone is now available in the App Store! Download it now!

Competitions

As before, the app will be powered by Opta’s most detailed on the ball match event feeds, providing live access to over 1500 events per match. We have coverage for the following competitions for the rest of this season:

UEFA Champions League

UEFA Europa League

Premier League

La Liga

Serie A

Bundesliga

Ligue 1

And the app will also be covering the MLS and Chinese Super League when those competitions kickoff.

New Push Notifications

Stats Zone is unique in the depth it provides about what happened in a match, and I wanted to take that into the app’s approach to push notifications as well.

Each app subscription provides you with the option to choose a team or teams to recieve push notifications for - with “One Team” or “One Competition & One Team” subscriptions you can choose one team, with “Full Access” you can choose five teams and “App Patron” subscribers can choose ten.

Without spoiling the surprise, you’ll get much more detail than ever before at a glance without even opening the app. The result is not all that matters ;)

Thanks for your patience and support, enjoy the app!

Yours in football,

Colm - [email protected]

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Stats Zone Update - January 2018

I want to update you on where things are at with the new Stats Zone app. Feature wise the app will be very familiar to those of you who have used it over the years, but I thought it was important to let you guys know about the new approach, which is very different to what’s gone before.

Independence

As some of you will remember, the first version of what became Stats Zone launched all the way back in 2010. A lot has changed in the app world since then, and to give Stats Zone the best chance of still being around in 2020 it needs a new approach.

The app‘s life has benefitted from really great brand partnerships - particularly with FourFourTwo in it’s previous incarnation. However, with the long term in mind, I’m relaunching Stats Zone as an entirely independent product - no VC or external funding, no rich backers and no big brand naming. I’m sure partnerships and sponsorships will play a part in it’s future, but I hope that by putting you (the app’s audience) as the main focus we can create a sustainable core to build on. As such, it will rely more than ever on your support…

Revenue model

So what will change? The main difference is the revenue model. The new Stats Zone app will be a free download and will provide access to a great archive of competition match data. An in-app subscription will be required for access to in progress competitions and live matches.

Initially there will be a choice of three subscription tiers:

One Team: access all of one team’s match data (e.g. Barcelona)

One Competition & One Team: access all of the match data for one competition (e.g. Premier League) and one team (e.g. Real Madrid)

Full Access: access everything the app has to offer

Full pricing information and additional details will be available closer to release. With a new approach like this I’m very aware that it might not be right first time, so feel free to get in touch any time and I’ll be keeping my ears open for feedback and potential improvements.

Platforms

One consequence of this approach is how it affects release across platforms. At launch, the new Stats Zone app will be available on the iOS App Store only - that decision comes down to a combination of cost, time and resources. Obviously I hope to also bring the Android app back to life in the near future, but for now I’ll be concentrating on making the new revenue model a success on the iOS app to support that.

More soon…

I'm really looking forward to re-releasing the app and hope that gives you a bit of insight into what’s coming. I’ll be in touch again soon as the release gets closer with some more details such as what competitions the app will be covering. In the meantime, if you're not already why not follow me on Twitter - @tiki_taka_co and @StatsZone.

Thanks again for your support!

Yours in football, Colm

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What’s next for Stats Zone?

Unfortunately, FourFourTwo have decided not to continue with Stats Zone which means the apps will not include any 2017/18 season data and are no longer available to download.

The good news is that this is not the end, and I’m already working on the app’s return. FourFourTwo licensed the app which means I have ownership of the product and it will be back in a non-FourFourTwo form - perhaps you can even help with that…

The most obvious approach on how that could happen is that another brand licenses or sponsors the app as FourFourTwo have done for the last six seasons. If you work for a brand and that’s of interest to you, or you know someone worth talking to about that, get in touch (details below).

I also know that many of you have used the app in a professional context - whether in clubs as coaches or performance analysts or in media as journalists, commentators or pundits and I’d be happy to discuss how you could continue to use the app in future.

I’m looking forward to taking the product through this post-FourFourTwo period of change, keeping Stats Zone on the cutting edge of innovation as well as experimenting with new business models and revenue approaches to keep the product sustainable well into the future.

A huge thank you to all of you out there that have made the app possible over the six years of FourFourTwo’s involvement by using the apps so actively, by sharing chalkboards or insights found in the app and by spreading the word about the apps to fellow football fanatics.

The opportunity to work with FourFourTwo on the app took it to a totally different level for me - having the product associated with a brand that has such tradition and that is ingrained in UK football culture was extremely satisfying professionally and had a personal aspect too - FourFourTwo is a magazine I started reading back when I was a teenager. A sincere thanks to everyone at FourFourTwo and Opta who helped push the app forward every season.

My intention when I started the app was to provide a tool and data that could help fans understand team and player performances better, and so raise the level of conversation about football matches. There has been fantastic progress on that front since the app was first launched as Total Football back in 2010 but there’s still plenty to be done.

To be the first to find out what’s next follow @tiki_taka_co and @StatsZone on Twitter. If you’d like to discuss commercial opportunities or just shoot the breeze about football and digital products then drop me an email: [email protected]

Yours in football, Colm

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Essential Apps for Euro 2016

France kick off UEFA Euro 2016 tomorrow evening and you’ve got just enough time to finish your preparation by downloading these two essential Tiki-Taka apps.

Stats Zone is the most innovative football app and for Euro 2016 is available on both iPhone and iPad for the first time. Stats Zone gives you access to live scores and scorers as well the ability to browse, analyse and share huge amounts of Opta powered match event data in real-time. The all new iPad version offers the first genuine live second screen football app, a unique way to enhance your viewing experience.

For UK users, Live Football on TV is the most accurate and comprehensive list of live football being shown on UK channels, also avialable on both iPhone and iPad. Download the app, set up Euro 2016 as a favouite and you populate a calendar with all the match details and automatically schedule matches to record your Sky+ box.

Enjoy the tournament!

App Store Links:

Stats Zone: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id453744566?mt=8

Live Football on TV: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id533746988?mt=8

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The Stats Zone Guide

Intended for both first and long time users, the posts below will take you through a number of the app’s features and unique uses with insight into the decisions made when designing the product.

Got a question or would you like a topic covered? Get in touch. 

Totally new to Stats Zone? Start here.

How to analyse a match

The Match Timeline, balancing simplicity and depth

The First Genuine Second Screen Experience

Coming soon - focus on shots (and why Stats Zone doesn’t provide “expected goals” stats), passes and how to show off your own Stats Zone analysis. 

Posts will be announced on Twitter: @tiki_taka_co

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The Stats Zone Guide: Part III - The First Genuine Second Screen Experience

I love watching football. That may seem easy to understand, but I have to be more specific. I love *watching* football - for matches I'm interested in I want it to be as close to a cinematic experience as possible. And just as I've struggled to *watch* a match in a pub over conversations, hard to see or hear screens and trying to get served, the challenge of ignoring the distractions of Twitter, using Stats Zone and everything else iPhone has meant focusing on a match becomes difficult no matter what the context. It sounds like I'm not alone.

The second screen has been hyped for years, so much that you'd think the tech hipsters had created amazing second screen experiences we all use day to day. But the truth is that there are no second screen football apps. All the tapping, typing, swiping, liking, snapping and app-ing while watching football become your first screen and, since first is first, the match becomes the second screen.

Stats Zone on iPad fixes that with the first glanceable second screen experience. An innovation designed to keep you informed without being distracted from the essential activity of watching the match itself. 

Simply open Stats Zone, tap on the live match you're watching, prop your iPad up, and hit the play button. The app will continuously scroll through shots, passes and all of the other Stats Zone sections while also automatically downloading real-time match updates. During breaks in play, you can simply glance at the second screen to see the latest stats and chalkboards without having to open apps, tap through menus, wait for downloads and all the usual distractions and interactions.

If you want to jump to a particular section, no problem. The second screen mode will just pick up from wherever you leave it. Or of course you can pause it to go back to normal Stats Zone use if you want to explore something in more depth.

Multitasking Support

On the iPad Pro, iPad Air 2 or iPad Mini 4 it's possible to use Split View to display multiple apps at the same time. This works great with Stats Zone's second screen mode.

Using Twitter alongside Stats Zone is going to be a popular choice. The Twitter app I recommend is Tweetbot and it provides a way for your Twitter stream to automatically update (open Tweetbot, go to Settings by tapping on your Twitter profile image, then under "Streaming" enable both "Steam" and "Pin to Top").

Follow all the stats, chalkboards and Clatz gifs without raising a finger.

"Finally"

The first version of anything is hopefully also the worst version that will exist, but I hope Stats Zone for iPad is going to add to your enjoyment of Euro 2016 and become a habit when watching live football. Be sure to let us know your thoughts and suggestions.

Read more posts from The Stats Zone Guide here.

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The Stats Zone App Guide: Part II - The Match Timeline, balancing simplicity and depth

"It was a game of two halves." "The match ebbed and flowed." "They started well but tired as the match went on."

Context matters. It's interesting to see that one team had twice as many shots on target as the other in the full time stats, but it's even more interesting if all of those attempts happen in the second half. Or how possession changed after a deep-lying playmaker goes off injured.

To understand a match, the timeline is the first element to turn to. If Stats Zone had to be reduced to a single feature, the timeline would be what remains.

At first glance, Stats Zone's match timeline provides a high level introduction into the story of a match. It starts with kickoff on the left, full time or the current minute for live matches on the right and in between maps out the key events (displayed by icons). Further inspection sees indicators for every shot and a possession graph with the home team displayed in the top half and the away team on the bottom. As you'll see below, it's also the way for you to interact with and interrogate the match data to figure out when the match was really won or lost.

When you've selected a particular match, the timeline is always within view and on the iPad "Matches" tab you can quickly scan all the timelines for a day's matches before tapping to go into more detail.

How to read the timeline

Goals. Missed penalties. Yellow and red cards. Substitutions. In just a second or two you'll see when those happened - with the home team on the top half, away team on the bottom.

Look further and you'll see vertical blue (on target), red (off target) and grey (blocked) lines showing when every shot was taken. The long blue graph line running across the entire timeline is the graph of possession for every 5 minutes of the match. The further away it is from the centre horizontal line, the more possession dominant that team had at that time. In the example above, FC Bayern München dominated possession from kickoff until they scored twice in extra time in their 2016 UCL Round of 16 match against Juventus.

How to use the timeline

By just looking at it you can see if a team didn't have a shot in the first half or if the 3-2 win was a comeback from 2-0 down or a difficult finish to a match under control after conceding two late goals.

But the timeline also drives what's displayed in the rest of the app. You can select any part of a match to limit the data displayed to that period only.

Tap once to select first half, second half or a period of extra time

Double tap to limit to the 15 minutes around the touch point (this is also automatically bound to the start or end of a half)

Triple tap for that to be a 5 minute period

If none of that is granular enough, you can pinch with two fingers or with one finger drag the left or right handle to select exactly the minute to minute period you're interested in

Tap the “X” button to reset to the full match selection

The data used in the app’s stats and chalkboard images will always filter to only the events in whatever match period you select on the timeline. The shot chalkboards only show the shots that happened within that time, the defensive chalkboards only show the defensive actions within that time, the listings of stats only show the counts of events that happened within that time.

And if you tap on stat counts or use the compare feature to see a specific side by side analysis view the timeline period you've selected will be passed through where of course you can refine again or choose different time periods for the two chalkboards - this is a great way to compare how performance changes across different spells of a match. For instance, comparing the home team's first half shots in the left chalkboards against the same team's second half shots in the right chalkboard.

The final trick you'll see the match timeline pull is displaying the current time being shown when using the chalkboard's animated "play" feature. An orange line on the match timeline signals when the events being displayed on the chalkboard took place, a vital visual cue.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”

The best tools provide a simple and accessible way to achieve a task, but also reveal additional layers for more complex use. Stats Zone's match timeline does exactly that.

Read more posts from The Stats Zone Guide here.

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The Stats Zone App Guide: Part I - How to analyse a match

I've never understood why people who say "the result is all that matters" bother to watch a match, it's a total waste of their time. The process matters. Did the result reflect the game? Which team created the most chances? How did each team play? Were there any stand out performers?

The depth of data in Stats Zone may seem intimidating at first, but it also provides great ways to get a quick grip of these types of questions without being overwhelmed. Below I'll walk through how I use the app to get a quick feel for how a match went or is going - spending 10 to 30 seconds on each or just a couple of the below will give you infinitely more understanding of a match than just the score and scorers.

1. Match Timeline

The icons on the timeline show when goals were scored, penalties missed, cards issued and substitutions made. The next level of detail shows every shot in the match represented by a vertical line (blue for on target, red for off target, grey for blocked just like on the chalkboards) and the blue graph line running horizontally shows the possession percentage at each stage.

Already from this top level data we get a useful snapshot - did one team dominate possession? Did a team take shots or score when they had more possession or against the run of play? Does it look like substitutions or cards in the match made a difference in terms of goals/shots/possession? Did the goals all happen at a specific time of the match? Was it 3-0 before it was 3-3 or who led in the match, when and for how long?

2. Key Events

After scanning the timeline, it's useful to jump to the Key Events to get a bit more detail.

For goals, Stats Zone provides information on whether goals were scored from a set piece, regular play or a fast break and other information such as if it has been designated by Opta as a "Big Chance" (a situation where a player should reasonably expected to score). The buildup chalkboards also show if goals were scored at the end of an intricate passing buildup from the back, a direct pass beyond a slow defence or maybe from a cross on the wing of a weak full back.

There's also detail on what cards were awarded for (including fouls, dissent, time wasting, dives, persistent infringement, professional fouls and of course unforgivable excessive celebrations), whether substitutions were tactical or due to injury and how much injury time was played at the end of each half.

If you want to know who scored, you've got lots of places to turn to. If you want to know how they scored, you'll go to Stats Zone.

3. Shots

Next up, the shots chalkboard. This shows where shots were taken from, whether they were a free kick or penalty (a square at the base of the shot), a header (a triangle) or a normal open play shot (a dot). The quantity and location of shots taken together provide an interesting story into the quality of the shots - did a team take a lot of shots but all from outside the penalty area? Did a team have lots of shots around the six yard box but not score? Were the goals scored from unlikely positions?

Looking down to the stats themselves - the "Big Chances" stat gives another layer to who might have deserved to win the match and the Top Players list shows which players continually missed the target and who was efficient in front of goal.

4. Passes

The chalkboards instantly give you a look at whether this was a match dominated by one team or more balanced. Equally, it informs whether teams played direct or short, whether they were reasonably balanced across the width of the pitch or focused on one wing and how often they managed to pass the ball into good attacking areas.

Glancing at the "Attacking Third" and "Inside Penalty Area" stats gives even more detail on that and (coupled with your knowledge of the quantity and quality of shots taken) you have a clear idea of the type of attacks each team was able to construct.

5. Player Influence, Attack, Defence and Fouls

Flicking through each of these screens fills out the picture - which players were most involved? How much and where did each team attack from? Were all their defensive actions deep and near the penalty area or did they also try to win the ball back in the opposition half? Did they foul much at all? If so, where?

Taking a minute or two to glance through some or all of the above is obviously not going to replace watching a match - but it will give you a great starting point to discuss and explore the performances of teams and players further. And if it's a match you've been watching it might challenge some of the ideas you have about who "deserved to win" - can you justify your opinion against the facts?

The result is not all that matters.

Read more posts from The Stats Zone Guide here.

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Stats Zone for iOS - The Most Innovative Football App

Stats Zone is the award-winning football app giving you access to live scores and scorers as well the ability to browse, analyse and share huge amounts of match event data in real-time. Use the interactive controls to choose specific periods and to compare teams and players side by side. One tap generates images or animated videos of your analysis to send to your friends or post on social media.

Stats Zone covers the top European leagues: England, Spain, Germany, Italy; MLS, UEFA Champions League, FIFA World Cup and now the UEFA European Championships.

Licensed to FourFourTwo, it's available for free from the App Store.

New features for UEFA Euro 2016

The newly released v5 adds coverage of UEFA Euro 2016 and for the first time makes Stats Zone a universal app, meaning it natively supports both iPhone and iPad.

The iPad version includes a major innovation in how to use the app during a live match. The unique, automatically updating, second screen mode provides the first glanceable, hands free way of following all the key stats and chalkboards during a live match without you having to tap on the device or distract you from watching the match itself as other supposed second screen apps do.

Why do I need Stats Zone?

Stats Zone uses the most in-depth Opta data feed available, the exact same data as is used by major broadcasters and publications as well as elite professional club and international teams for their own internal performance analysis.

You have access to all the usual high level match info that you would expect from any football app: goals, scorers, assists, substitutions, yellow or red cards, possession percentages, number of shots, corners, free kicks etc with the added bonus that you can add any number of followed or supported teams to receive push notifications for all the key match events.

You also get pre-match Opta facts, lineups shown in formation and listings of quality articles from FourFourTwo’s website for every match.

But with Stats Zone it doesn’t stop there, highlights include:

Animated goal buildup chalkboards

Shot chalkboards showing where each shot was taken from and how it ended up

Pitch graphics showing total passing maps for each team and player

The unique Player Influence infographic, showing the average position of each player’s actions in the match and how much they have been involved

A glanceable match timeline showing when all the key events happened: goals, shots, cards, subs and even who had most possession at any time

The ability to filter the data to specific periods of the match - first half, second half or any custom period of your choice

Top Players in across each of the essential event categories, even who suffered the most fouls, or made the most interceptions

Over 20 categories of shot statistic including: on/off target, blocked, inside/outside the penalty area, woodwork hits, from set plays

Passes broken down by pitch location, distance, chances created/assists and also see the passes received by each player

Attacking actions such as take-ons, crosses, corners, final third/penalty area passes and ball recoveries

Defensive actions such as tackles, interceptions, blocked shots & crosses, clearances and errors leading to shots/goals

So whether you're building up to kickoff, keeping up to date with a live match while on the move, using the app as a live second screen companion while watching live on TV or picking apart what happened post match, Stats Zone has you covered.

Download it for free now from the App Store: https://appsto.re/gb/2E5cB.i

Learn More - The Stats Zone Guide

The Stats Zone Guide is a series of posts intended for both new and long time users. Each post takes you through a specific app features or unique use with insight into the decisions made when designing the product. Want something covered? Get in touch.