SportsBall

One of the most iconic records in sports is about to fall 🏒 The National Hockey League (NHL)'s all-time goal-scoring title, long held by Wayne Gretzky, is just 3 goals away from a new owner as Alex Ovechkin is on the verge of breaking the unbreakable. Some more stats on Wayne Gretzky, who didn’t just lead the league, he redefined it. Over two decades, he posted: 🔹 2,857 total points, still 49 percent more than any player in history 🔹 1,963 assists and 894 goals 🔹 15 All-Star appearances, 9 MVPs, and 4 Stanley Cups And here's a bit more on Ovi’s game, which is simple and singular: put the puck in the net. 🔸 55% of his points are goals, compared to 31% for Gretzky 🔸 15 of 20 seasons with more goals than assists 🔸 He's the all-time shots leader in the NHL with more than 6,800 And it's not like Ovechkin is limping to the finish line. Even now, in his 20th season, he is producing at an elite level. NHL EDGE data places Ovechkin in the 88th percentile or higher in: 📈 Shot volume 📈 Shot speed 📈 Shooting percentage 📈 Total goals A generational milestone is happening before our eyes. By season’s end, the NHL should have a new all-time goal scoring leader—and his name will be Alex Ovechkin. Follow SportsBall for more sports data visualizations, and thanks to National Hockey League (NHL) for partnering up on this amazing data story. #linkedinsports #nhl #hockey #goalchase #gretzky #ovechkin

Curious about why Grand Slam Track came about? Confused about the structure? SportsBall has broken it all down for you!

March Madness isn’t just a basketball tournament, it’s the financial backbone of college athletics 🏀💰 In 2024, the NCAA generated $1.38 billion in revenue. Nearly 70% of that came from media rights to just 67 men’s tournament games. The viewership makes it worth it with each game averaging nearly 10 million viewers so far this year 📺👀 That concentrated income fuels a wide range of programs each year: 🏆 About 25% funds travel and 90 championships across 24 sports 🎓 Roughly a third supports scholarships, academic services, and operations 📊 Around 12% is distributed based on men’s tournament performance It’s a familiar model: one short, high-revenue season funds programming year-round—just like how Girl Scout cookies 🍪 support local troop activities. As we head into the Final Four, it’s worth remembering how much of college athletics depends on these two weeks. Follow SportsBall for more sports data visualizations #MarchMadness #NCAA #CollegeBasketball #SportsBusiness #datastorytelling #sportsball

⚾ MLB is testing autocorrect for umpires. In baseball, the strike zone is an invisible box where pitches inside count as strikes and those outside are balls. But since there’s no physical marker, umpires make these calls in real time - and while they’re highly skilled, mistakes happen. In 2024, umpires called an average of 151 pitches per game across 2,400+ games. Their accuracy? 94%. Impressive, but still not perfect. Every single game had at least one missed call, and in 8.5% of games, incorrect calls had a calculated influence on the final score by at least one run. That’s why Major League Baseball (MLB) is testing an automated strike zone. The system uses precise measurements to ensure fairness, adjusting based on a batter’s height and stance. It’s currently being tested in spring training, where teams can challenge two calls per game. If successful, we could see it in regular-season action as early as 2026. This shift represents more than just an upgrade to umpiring, it’s part of a broader movement toward technology-driven fairness in sports. Follow SportsBall for more sports data visualizations #MLB #Baseball #SportsTech #DataAnalytics #Innovation

Bridging the Research Gap in Women’s Football. Did you know that female footballers suffer non-contact ACL injuries 2.5 times more often than their male counterparts? While no single cause has been pinpointed, this underscores the urgent need for women-specific research and training. Yet, despite clear developmental differences, like how girls hit their adolescent height spike about two years earlier than boys, sports science research remains largely male-focused. A review of 5,000+ sports science studies found that: 🔹 31% studied only male participants 🔹 63% included both men and women 🔹 Only 6% focused exclusively on women This lack of dedicated research means that many training protocols and products for women are simply scaled-down versions of those designed for men. At Catapult, we’re addressing this disparity by working with institutions like Loughborough University and West Ham United FC Women’s team to develop women-specific performance pathways. Our latest Women’s Football Benchmark Report, built on match data from the 2023 Women’s World Cup, establishes position-specific benchmarks for distance, speed, and intensity based on real elite scenarios. This is just the beginning of a data-driven revolution in women’s football. By tailoring training and performance standards to the unique demands of the women's game, we can improve safety, enhance performance, and drive the sport forward. 🔗 Access the full report to start building better training programs today. https://bit.ly/4i7CbCd @SportsBall #SportsDataDecoded #IWD2025 #AccelerateAction #UnleashPotential

Some NFL teams are basically using credit to buy players 💳 🏈 Every football team has to fit all player salaries within the salary cap. Last year, that cap was $255.4M, so for example, on the Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes took up 14.5% of that cap, while Travis Kelce accounted for 7.7%. Most teams try to maximize talent while staying within budget—but no one pushes the boundaries these days like the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles. Their secret? Void years. This strategy spreads out a contract's salary cap "hit" into the future, freeing up cap space today to spend on more good players. Take Jalen Hurts: his 5-year, $255M contract should theoretically cost $51M per year through 2028. But instead, the Eagles use void years to extend his financial hit until 2032—four years after the deal ends. While Hurts still gets paid on schedule, this structure lowers the yearly cap hit, allowing them to sign more talent now. By 2030, 23 NFL teams will have $0 in committed payments. The Eagles? They already owe $129M—nearly half of today’s cap. But with the cap rising 6.7% annually, these payments could shrink as a percentage of total spending. It's certainly risky to push off the cap hit like this, but it can also allow for near term flexibility, which certainly paid off for the Eagles this year 🏆 Follow SportsBall for more sports data visualizations #NFL #SalaryCap #SportsBusiness #sportsball #accounting #datastorytelling

1,000,000/100: Ben Hildred’s MTB Challenge 🚴 Right now in Queenstown, New Zealand, we’re witnessing one of the most mind-blowing endurance feats in cycling history. Ben Hildred is on a mission to climb 1 million vertical feet on a mountain bike in just 100 days—a challenge that pushes both body and mind to their absolute limits. To put that into perspective, imagine riding up 10 Eiffel Towers every single day for over three months—on rugged mountain trails, in scorching summer heat, all while running a business. Sounds impossible, right? How does it compare to other amazing feats? 📏 Swimming Across the Atlantic – 3,700 miles, 0 vertical feet 🚀 Rocket Launch to the ISS – 1.3 million vertical feet 🚴 Tour de France – 2,063 miles, 169,000 feet climbed 🥾 Pacific Crest Trail – 2,653 miles, 489,000 feet climbed 🔥 Ben’s Challenge – 3,000 miles, 1 million feet climbed Let's look at Ben's daily grind. To stay on track he must: 🔺 Climb 10,000 feet per day (10x the Eiffel Tower) ⛰️ Tackle trails with up to a 16.4% grade (steeper than what’s safe for parked cars) ⏰ Start at 4:00 AM to beat the New Zealand summer heat 🔄 Spend 4.5 hours climbing and 1.5 hours descending—every day The Wildest Part? Ben has spent more time on his bike than sleeping during the effort. Follow SportsBall for more sports data visualizations #sportsball #datastorytelling #mtb #sram #rockshox #linkedinsports

Did you know that nearly 10 million people watch Jeopardy! every week? The quiz show that’s been a staple of American television for over 40 years is now adopting a playoff structure similar to major sports leagues—making it a perfect fit for SportsBall breakdown. For years, contestants were capped at five-game winning streaks. Then came Ken Jennings’ legendary 74-game run, proving that superchampions could redefine the game. Now, Jeopardy! has introduced a postseason to match this elite level of competition. Here’s how it works: ⬇️ 🔹 Second Chance Tournament (Weeks 1-2): Two winners emerge from a field of strong players who lost their first game. 🔹 Champions Wildcard Tournament (Weeks 3-4): The two Second Chance winners join 13 champions (each with at least one win) in a 15-player tournament. One moves on. 🔹 Tournament of Champions (Weeks 5-7): The Champions Wildcard winner joins contestants who won 3+ games in the eligibility period. The victor advances. 🔹 Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament (Week 8-10): A special event featuring past champions and fan favorites. One winner is crowned. All of that leads up to Jeopardy! Masters in May which includes the ToC winner, Invitational winner, top 3 finishers from last year’s Masters, and a producer’s pick compete for the title of Jeopardy! champion of champions. Follow SportsBall for more sports data visualizations #sportsball #linkedinsports #datavisualization #datastorytelling

The NHL is proving it's the perfect league for international competition with the 4 Nations Face-Off You see, in most major U.S. sports leagues, the majority of players are American-born—95% in the NFL, 75% in the NBA and MLB. But the NHL is a bit different. ✅ Canada: 40% of NHL players ✅ USA: 30% ✅ Sweden & Finland: 9% and 5%, respectively Since 1980, Canada’s dominance has declined (from 80% to 40%), while the U.S. and European nations have surged. This split makes the NHL perfect for a high-stakes international tournament. Enter the 4 Nations Faceoff—the first best-on-best showdown since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey as players haven't played in the Olympics since 2014. And the rosters are Stacked. 🇨🇦 Canada: Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon—six MVPs between them. 🇺🇸 USA: Auston Matthews, the Tkachuk brothers, and Connor Hellebuyck in net. 🇸🇪 Sweden: William Nylander and Victor Hedman leading a deep squad. 🇫🇮 Finland: Aleksander Barkov and Mikko Rantanen—two elite two-way threats. And for what you could call an exhibition tournament, rivalries are heating up. USA vs. Canada saw three fights in the first nine seconds last Saturday, plus 50% more hits than an average NHL game. This tournament means something. With the Championship set for Thursday and USA already securing a spot, hockey fans are in for must-see TV. Follow SportsBall for more sports data visualizations. #Hockey #4NationsFaceoff #NHL #USA #Canada #Sweden #Finland

The big game means big business 🏈📺🏆 The Super Bowl isn’t just the biggest game of the year—it’s the biggest stage for advertisers with last year’s matchup between the Chiefs and 49ers averaging 123.7 million viewers, peaking during Usher’s halftime show. A normal NFL game has 18 commercial breaks, but for the Super Bowl, that jumps to 20—some fixed (like quarter ends and two-minute warnings), others chosen in real-time by networks. Ever noticed someone on the sideline with big orange gloves? That’s how they signal when it’s time to cut to a commercial. And those ads? They don’t come cheap. Last year, a 30-second spot cost ~$7 million, up 218% since 2000, with reports suggesting some brands are paying $8 million this year. With 96 ad spots totaling 60 minutes last year, the total estimated ad revenue for the broadcast was a staggering $800 million. Albeit, that's some simple back-of-the-napkin math that isn't actuals for broadcasters. Which industries bought in last year? 🍏 Tech brands led the pack at 25% of airtime (likely higher this year as AI companies jump in). 🍔 Food & beverage took 18%. 🎬 Movies & shows + Retail & shopping each grabbed 12%. 🚗 Streaming, auto, alcohol, and betting brands filled the rest. And it isn't just a win for broadcasters and the NFL, brands can make it huge on the big day - here are some metrics on web traffic over the course of the game last year. 📈 Poppi’s site skyrocketed 7,329% 💄 e.l.f. Cosmetics jumped 8,118% 🧾 TurboTax surged nearly 24,875% Nothing says "do your taxes" like the Super Bowl. Follow SportsBall for more sports data visualizations. Thanks The Social Juice for all the research help! 👇 #SuperBowl #Advertising #Marketing #SportsBusiness