read online: StatSheet introduces robot sports journalism covering college basketball, by Allan Maurer
also read:
Automated news comes to sports coverage via StatSheet, by Erick Schonfeld, TechCrunch.com
CARY, NC – North Carolina-based
Statsheet could put journalists out of business–at least those dealing with statistics oriented sports stories.
The company, which raised $1.3 million in financing led by Valhalla Partners in August, has launched a network of 345 sites, one for each NCAA Division I college basketball team, with all the content produced by Statsheet’s robots.
The company developed a content algorithm, partly designed and engineered by TechJournal South columnist Joe Procopio, that writes completely auto-generated posts.
Founder Robbie Allen says, “With UNC, Duke, and NC State located right here, we’re used to tons of coverage for our teams. But for smaller schools especially, StatSheet might be their only option. This gives us the ability to blog for every team in Division I without an army of journalists available to attend every game.”
Atlanta-based Greg Foster, a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and former Turner Broadcasting executive says, and long-time advisor to the company said, “StatSheet’s application of technology and automation in this arena redefines the way that sports content is delivered. This is a real game changer.”
The company stores and updates more than 500 million different sports stats and analyzes up to 10,000 data points and 4,000 potential phrases to generate a story.
We first reported the coming creation of “artificial journalists” in our report on the company’s raise in August.
Allen explains that “70 percent of sports content is based on stats. Our technology goes through the stats, does a ton of analysis, and bakes it into stories that we can spit out quickly.” He says the company has identified about 20 types of sports stories it can automate.
The automated story technology may have applications in other areas, Allen adds, but right now the company is focused on sports.
TechCrunch reviewed some of the robot-produced stories and concluded that “It’s not exactly riveting sports journalism, but if all you want is the facts, it does the job.”
Both Allen and Procopio will be at
Tech Media’s Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC, Nov. 17-18, which expects a capacity crowd of more than 1500 people.