The artificial intelligence of 'El Pirata'

His fine touch as a midfielder at Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Espanyol and now Marbella is well known, but not so much his business streak. Esteban Granero, El Pirata, is the typical atypical footballer, university student, voracious reader, literary critic for the Newtral project by journalist Ana Pastor and founder of Olocip, a Spanish startup that offers comprehensive Artificial Intelligence services to optimize club decision-making and sports companies. For example, the predictive model that hit CR7's goals and assists a year in advance in his first season with Juventus Turin. Granero has received the Prize for the Promotion of Research and Science granted by the magazine Quo and the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC).

What does your experience as a professional player bring to the company?

I embarked on this challenge because as a footballer I have known first-hand the deficiencies of the analysis and the use of data, it is so in sports in general, not only in soccer. I thought that artificial intelligence could take advantage of all that information and reach another level of knowledge to answer the key questions that clubs really ask themselves.

What kind of clients do you work for?

We cannot mention specific clients due to the confidentiality clause, but they are well-known Spanish and international clubs. We also apply this type of analysis in tennis, basketball and now cricket.

What advantages does this technology offer compared to other models?

Generate knowledge that can transform into a competitive advantage in matters that until recently seemed forbidden, for example the prevention and prediction of injuries, performance, or the behavior of your rival in the next game. The analyzes are not only descriptive, they are not limited to explaining what has happened. So you can tailor the training to a player who is at high high risk of breaking, predict the statistics of a possible signing in the context of the next season or anticipate the performance of each player in specific situations against different rivals. Only artificial intelligence can analyze the future and answer the questions: why has what happened, what is going to happen? And above all, what should I do to make what I want happen?

With the application of these predictive models, are sports and athletes not at risk of becoming robotic?

Precisely eliminating chance to its maximum degree is one of our objectives to make decisions based on the least possible uncertainty, which is what artificial intelligence is allowing. It is that these probabilistic models work as tools in collaboration with professionals, but that does not imply robotizing human beings, the game will always be the game. That people work together with artificial intelligence makes both of them much stronger than separately.

What will sport be like in 20 years when artificial intelligence goes much further?

It is difficult to know, not only in sport, in the world in general because in technology each discovery opens the doors to new ones, that is why the advance is not arithmetic but geometric. The change will surely be profound, amazing, in all facets. We invest most of our resources to develop ever-deepening artificial intelligence and anticipate that future.