Euroleague Basketball innovates with electronic scoresheet

For the first time, Euroleague Basketball will introduce an electronic scoresheet for all games in the upcoming 2015-16 Turkish Airlines Euroleague and Eurocup seasons. The electronic scoresheet is the latest in technological advancements that will bring game data quickly and more efficiently to fans, media members and other stakeholders.

To produce the electronic scoresheet each game will feature a unified scorers crew that combines former table officials and statisticians, thus reducing redundancy. Previously different people would enter the same data points in different platforms over the course of a game. Despite this change, all existing rules and regulations will continue to apply. To help implement the change, pre-season unified scorers meetings were held with all 60 clubs invited to be trained regarding the new scoresheet.

"After having been discussed internally for many years, we believe that now is the time to make a step forward by incorporating a modular electronic scoresheet in our main competitions," Eduard J. Scott, COO of Euroleague Basketball, said. "The K-Stats application has been significantly expanded in order to use technology to help improve the accuracy and quality of the work that our unified scorers will perform across Europe this season. Our vision is that in the near future we will see the scoresheet, statistics, TV graphics, video as well as many other data points merged live in every arena – opening up a plethora of possibilities that will enrich the fan experience at home and in the arena."

Integration between the electronic scoresheet, arena clocks and scoreboards is already being worked on. This joins a long list of technological advancements that Euroleague Basketball has introduced in recent years in order to improve accuracy, such as the use by referees of the Precision Time System as well as the instant replay system.