InterviewMatch Game: Israel’s Rankset is leveraging tech to optimize soccer transfers
Interview
Match Game: Israel’s Rankset is leveraging tech to optimize soccer transfers
In an in-depth interview, co-founder & CEO Ariel Samuel shares how he turned his passion for ‘the beautiful game’ into a data-driven startup leveling the playing field for both teams and agents
Ariel Samuel, the co-founder and CEO of Israeli startup Rankset, carries a lifelong love for ‘the beautiful game’ of soccer, as a player, team manager, and especially a fan. Since last year this love has materialized in the form of a technology startup named Rankset, whose company motto is “match made by data.” Rankset is the brainchild of Samuel and his longtime friends and co-founders Kfir Stokol (CFO) and Itzik Mirilashvili. As far as funding, Samuel says the company is bootstrapped and is currently in the process of raising crowdfunding through the Pipelbiz platform.
Rankset is an online platform for soccer clubs and players’ agencies that analyzes and finds the best match possible between soccer teams and players and agents and clubs. Leveraging AI and machine learning, Rankset provides both dashboards and call-to-action capabilities, with over 220,000 professional players and focus groups in its databases. The company produces a high quality player's bank for each team per position according to the team’s goals, estimated budget framework, and matching potential. For agencies, they provide a full breakdown of the player’s character and mental function in order to find the best team for them in the market.
Samuel himself played soccer as a youth, which is where his passion began. “The game always interested and fascinated me,” he told CTech. “I loved the dynamics behind the sport, the stats, the numbers, what makes a winning team and helps them achieve titles, reaching their goals and beyond.”
A gem of an idea
A third-generation jewelry and diamond seller, the global pandemic period gave Samuel time to polish off his longtime thoughts about pivoting careers and channeling his passion for soccer into a viable startup. Rankset became his ‘diamond in the rough’.
“I thought to myself, what’s the main thing that drives me, that gets me out of the bed in the morning, and I kept coming back to my love of soccer,” Samuel said. “I used to pour over statistics in my spare time for free, so I decided to make a business out of it.”
The origins of the company began innocently enough with Samuel and his friends collecting player data and statistics and recording them manually in notebooks. This continued until a colleague suggested they put it all in computer code and see where it would lead them.
Matching clubs with players and agents with clubs
Targeting both clubs and player agencies, Rankset, whose name is a combination of the words ‘rank’ (ranking players) and ‘set’ (as in ‘setting up a match’ between two parties), analyzes and matches up clubs with players and agents with clubs.
Statistical sports data analysis is already very prominent - you’re not reinventing the wheel.
“Correct. We are not reinventing the wheel, we are simply analyzing the existing data and steering the wheel in the correct direction as a result.”
How vast is your database?
“We analyze over 220,00 players in our system in over 140 soccer leagues all over the world. We are working on gathering data in markets where nobody is gathering data yet, such as remote parts of Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe in the hopes that we can discover more young soccer talent and through our algorithm know where to place them according to levels and hopefully get them into soccer academies to hone their skills. We see ourselves not just as helping clubs and agents, but helping raise the next generation of soccer stars.”
Rankset claims that it can save soccer clubs a lot of money in transfer fees. How does that work?
“In soccer there are limited ‘transfer windows’, time periods where deals can be made and players can move to different teams. Some teams literally ‘sell’ players, it’s a market, plain and simple, and it’s common to have transfer fees. The better the player, the higher the transfer fees the clubs demand.”
But there is also a big risk involved too. You can pay a high transfer fee for a high quality player, but it may not work out on the field of play.
“Yes, at the end of the day you are not buying a computer, but a human being with emotions, personal goals, physical limitations, and more. Now the big soccer clubs have dozens of people who work in player evaluation and scouting, our service is not aimed at them because they have the manpower and resources themselves, we are targeting the smaller soccer clubs, which is 95% of the soccer clubs in the world, who have small budgets and need every advantage they can get. We provide them with the statistical data which helps them decide if they should pursue a particular high-priced player or not.
“In any company or startup, when you consider bringing on a new employee, you want the person who will be the best fit, the best match for your company. That is our ultimate goal, to help clubs find the best player that matches their needs and on the other side, the agent side, to help them find the best club for their players.”
What about video? Every talent evaluator watches video.
“True, but when you work for a soccer club you are generally sent ‘highlight reel’ videos of the best plays of the players. However, our statistics go back eight years, so we take everything into account to provide a broader picture of a player. Others might look at ‘some’ of the numbers, but they don’t go as deep as we do, deep analysis showing why the player is - or isn’t - a good fit for the club, and vice versa.”
And from the agents’ side?
“I am glad you asked. It’s called ‘reverse scouting’. Rankset can produce a profile of a player and then an agent can use that to see which teams are looking for what that player provides, where the best match, the best club, for that player is based on his position, skills, and more. Many big players engage in reverse scouting, they choose the club that is right for them. In the right club their stock can really rise.”
Surely you must agree that Rankset can’t replace the ‘eye test’, players need to be evaluated in person.
“The eye factor is critical. The coach will always want to see the player in person in action, and on video too. But I want to provide that coach or head of player personnel with the most accurate explanation, using data on why that player on the video is the best match for their team - or not a good match for the team, factoring in the team’s budget, current players, needs, strengths and weaknesses and more. At Rankset, we go beyond the basic numbers. No, we cannot predict the future, but we can provide deep analysis based on all the data as to why the player and club are a good match - or not. I like to say that at Rankset we set the table for you with all the data, but in the end you decide what you are going to eat.”
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As a company, will Rankset go beyond soccer and spread to other sports?
“That’s our ultimate dream to dive into other sports, but for now we are focusing on soccer, which is the most popular sport on the globe - and growing. And for me, soccer is my personal passion, so it feels great. But teams in all sports realize that if they don’t keep up with the data that’s out there, they will be left behind.”
Where do you see Rankset’s role in Israeli soccer?
“We are already in touch with some clubs in Israel who have started to use our system to make better club decisions and we all have seen the great achievements of Israel’s Under-19 team in international competition, so the future for Israeli soccer is bright. I firmly believe that with sports-tech innovation like ours, Israel can go from just being the ‘startup nation’ to the ‘soccer nation’.”
First published: 11:25, 31.08.22
