SodaSoccer founder: big data could not create value without ground

The volume of the Chinese sports industry is getting bigger and bigger with the help of government policies and the injection of capital. Against this background, there has been growth across all market segments within the Chinese sports industry over recent years. Professional data companies, as part of the market segments, are playing an increasingly important role in sports in an age when stats and data are highlighted more than ever before.

(SodaSoccer founder Han Qingshan)

We recently had an opportunity to speak with Mr. Han Qingshan, founder of SodaSoccer, an established sports data company. Han shared with us more details of SodaSoccer’s business and the company’s commercial logic within the growing sports industry in China.

Han graduated from Beijing Normal University in 1995 and is himself a huge football fan. He was a regular participant in football activities when he was younger. But unlike most others, Han has been obsessed with football-related stats since childhood. He continued to compile various kinds of football stats after matches in his spare time for fun even when he started working as a map editor. He didn’t decide to set up a data company until 2004 when he returned to China as a PhD candidate in Environmental Engineering at Lulea University of Technology in Sweden.  

SodaSoccer is a data service provider for the Chinese professional football leagues. And for years it has managed to serve a variety of leading media portals and platforms, including Sohu, Sina, CCTV, SMG and Titan. More importantly, SodaSoccer is a holding subsidiary of recently emerged Le Sports which bought a 56% stake of the former for a total of RMB33.92 million in January 2016. Despite this significant deal, SodaSoccer is still an independently operated company with a team of around 50 people.

With the investment from Le Sports, SodaSoccer is entering into a new phase. Based on years of experience and evaluation, Han is leading SodaSoccer as it grows from a pure sports data company to a more comprehensive data hub.

As he reveals, SodaSoccer is majorly involved in four segments of business.

Firstly, SodaSoccer provides relative sports stats for a range of Chinese TV channels and media platforms. According to Han, SodaSoccer has made an historic breakthrough to mine the data of CSL in support of interactivities with Le Sports this year. And the data will be open to third-parties next year.

Secondly, it provides customized services for the public through social media platforms including Sina Weibo and Wechat. Additionally, SodaSoccer is set to launch a specialized APP later this year to fit into Le Sports’ presence in live sports broadcasts in China.

Thirdly, SodaSoccer has become involved in grassroots football and youth football. Han said SodaSoccer will involve itself in grassroots football and youth football in order to develop a digital management system for both as part of the company’s business development.

Fourthly, big data, the leading digital edge, is something of great interest to the company. Han discloses that the company is planning to deal with various kinds of big data around sports, including sports-related live streaming, e-commerce, tourism etc. But it will all start with the strategic link with Le Sports.

Despite the fact that SodaSoccer is currently better at the first two business blocks, Han believes the value of data is of more importance to business in the sports industry.

“Data is the foundation for getting the most out of your business in this (sports) industry. Without professional data, you can’t manage to deal with the whole industrial chain. Data can be useful on nearly any occasion, but the key is how it is used.”

More importantly, the value of data will be decided by the approaches to it. “The value of big data rests with the volume of its combinative business, not in its own value,” Han argued, “so big data could not create value without a foundation. It needs to combine with other industries and improve the operations of related projects in order to create value.”

With this strategy, SodaSoccer is certainly on the way to explore more possibilities for the likes of Le Sports to increase revenues. And the company is also looking for partnerships with other industries. “We’ll combine our data with other experiences, and let’s see if we can get something new with a higher commercial value.”

Apparently Mr. Han is exploring more possibilities to grow based on the core data service of the company. And with the emergence of China’s sports industry, the big data market is fully open to him and many others. Let’s wait and see how Han and SodaSoccer get the most out of it.

Proofread by Sean O Diobhilin