The use of data in sport, and in particular high-level sport, is no longer new.
In cycling, data relating to athletes’ performances is carefully kept by the teams.
In rugby, the French XV and the federation, the FFR, are no longer confined to video analysis. Coaches and sports scientists love data. Can tennis also benefit from data science and machine learning?
The CDO in close collaboration with business departments
With now just under a million licensees, the FFT and its professions undoubtedly have a lot to gain from more systematic use of this heritage. This is also the observation of its general management.
Caroline Flaissier, CEO of the federation, also wants to recruit her master in this sector: a Chief Data Officer (CDO). A job offer was posted, notably on LinkedIn. This CDO, recruited on a permanent basis, will report directly to general management, generally a sign of strong sponsorship.
The French tennis federation also specifies that the future boss of data within the organization will be “in close cooperation with the business departments”. Its scope will therefore be extended, since the FFT fulfills different missions.
By ministerial delegation, the federation aims to “promote, organize and develop tennis in France, to bring together and support affiliated clubs, and to coordinate their activities”.
A data strategy aligned with the priorities of the DG
It also has the role of promoting valuable assets as official organizer of the Roland-Garros tournaments and the Rolex Paris Masters. As such, the FFT holds “all of the related exploitation rights”.
Valuation is also the primary mission of the chief data officer. In the tennis world, the CDO of the FFT will head the data department. It is up to him to define and implement the data strategy (governance, collection, models, valorization) by aligning it with the FFT strategy.
To win the game, the chief data officer will have to play tactics and play the role of captain of selection, therefore ensuring the steering of the data department and the management of the team. He will also know how to mobilize a collective to implement the strategy linked to the professions.
A CDO double partner of the DSI
A data transformation is technical, but above all a lot of human. The FFT therefore entrusts him with the mission of implementing and managing change management among business teams.
The CDO will play the role of a chief talking officer “to make people understand the functioning and possibilities offered by data and provide expertise to business users”. To demonstrate the effectiveness of his actions, he will report to general management.
And to convince, his mission will also be to carry out decision support analyzes for general management and business departments. Finally, he will form a high-performance partner with the IT department, “particularly in the design and implementation of IT systems architectures”.