Second Spectrum: The technology behind MLS and Premier League

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Second Spectrum are the world leading manufacturer of machines which understand sports and the experts at creating value from tracking data.

Founded in 2013, the industry innovators create tools designed to help teams gain an added advantage over their opponents. Their range of cutting-edge technology in computer vision, machine learning, big data, augmented reality and product design ensure that teams & leagues are assured a substantial return on their investment.

Considered the most advanced player tracking system in the world, Second Spectrum allows for teams and leagues to understand, evaluate, improve and create content about their game by producing fast and accurate location data.

Second Spectrum boast an impressive roster of partnerships, having been the Official Optical Tracking Provider for the English Premier League since 2019, the National Basketball Association (NBA) since 2017 and for Major League Soccer (MLS) since 2020.

Logo Second Spectrum

In addition, Second Spectrum work across several other leagues and with many other clubs across Europe and the US, with over 100 employees stationed across 5 countries in addition to their headquarters in Los Angeles.

In terms of functionality, the platform combines powerful video querying, intuitive visualisations, advanced statistics and customised reports in one simple interface. These come in the form of automated pre-game, post-game, team and player reports, all of which are delivered to users via automated PDF reports sent directly to one’s inbox that can be amended in keeping with the metrics critical to the organisation utilising the platform.

The platform’s video component can ingest an organisation’s existing video sources or can record games using Second Spectrum’s state-of-the-art camera system. Using the system’s unique and unmatched data set of machine-learned video indexing allows the user to search every game and to find any desired action within seconds.

Second Spectrum struck a partnership with Major League Soccer in February, 2020, marking a significant moment for the league going forward.

Prior to the delayed start of the 2020 season, Second Spectrum installed its state-of-the-art optical tracking system in every MLS stadium. By leveraging their cameras and their cloud-based analytics engine, Second Spectrum were able to provide clubs with data on the location of every player, the referees, and the ball twenty-five times per second throughout the season.

In addition, the software can calculate a player’s speed, acceleration, deceleration and shot velocity, as well as advanced statistics like passing probability and expected goals, in almost real time.

“We’re incredibly excited to partner with MLS and its teams. The combination of our new technologies and capabilities with a forward-thinking organization like MLS creates an exciting future of continued growth and innovation together,” Second Spectrum CEO Rajiv Maheswaran said.

The partnership was seen by MLS as a major stride in their progression and evolution as a league, with Senior Vice President of MLS, Chris Schlosser, acknowledging the opportunities afforded by Second Spectrum coming on board.

“MLS’ partnership with Second Spectrum sets a new standard for innovation in player-tracking in soccer,” he said.

“Along with Second Spectrum, MLS will deliver an enhanced new fan experience, bringing innovation to MLS content while providing MLS clubs and technical staff with new tools to enhance player performance.”

All MLS matches, including MLS Cup Playoffs, the MLS Cup, the MLS All-Star Game and the Leagues Cup & Campeones will be covered as a part of the wide-ranging partnership.

In spite of the impact of COVID-19 on industries across the world, Second Spectrum announced an expanded partnership with the English Premier League and sports tech leader in data & AI technology, Stats Perform, in September, 2020.

The renewed association saw Second Spectrum synchronising its tracking data and Stats Perform’s feeds to add new context and tactical information previously not available. Entitled the ‘Insight Feed’, the collaborative effort is considered to be the most comprehensive and robust set of football data available.

The Premier League were delighted to have developed the feed with Second Spectrum & Stats Perform.

“As the world’s most watched sport league we are delighted to partner with two innovative partners in Stats Perform and Second Spectrum, who have combined to produce a new Insights feed that will enhance storytelling and provide a new perspective of the Premier League to all our fans,” they said.

Second Spectrum added to the Premier League’s enthusiasm.

“We are delighted to partner with organizations like Stats Perform and the Premier League to bring state-of-the-art technology to the highest levels of football,” they said.

“We are excited to show how together we can both improve our understanding of the intricacies of the game and simultaneously move the game forward with the best data and insights that the sport deserves.”

You can find more about Second Spectrum via the link here.

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Mizuno’s Australian gamble: can a 120-year-old brand break through?

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Image Credit: Mizuno

When Mizuno unveiled a mural of Socceroos captain Harry Souttar on a Richmond wall during the 2026 World Cup, the company’s name did not appear on the artwork. The artist, Rory Ledge, painted Souttar as the “Minister of Defence” behind a brick wall. Channel 7 and Channel 9 turned up. The Herald Sun ran it in their Saturday edition. Mizuno’s brand director called it “mainstream awareness” without paid media.

The mural sat within a broader push by the Osaka-based company to expand in Oceania. For the fiscal year ending March 2026, Mizuno reported sales of ¥259 billion, up 7.8 per cent year-on-year, with net income of ¥18.4 billion representing 20.5 per cent growth . Operating profit rose to ¥22.6 billion. The Asia and Oceania segment is central to the company’s medium-term plan, which targets net sales of ¥290 billion by fiscal 2027.

The growth imperative

Australian football has not historically been kind to specialist boot brands. Nike, Adidas and Puma dominate retail shelves. A-Leagues collective bargaining agreements and club deals have locked in incumbents. For a brand without the marketing budgets of its competitors, the path to relevance runs through the players.

Mizuno has grown its Australian ambassador base from one athlete to around 20 across the A-Leagues in recent seasons. Melbourne City’s Tolgay Arslan, who played in the Bundesliga and Serie A before arriving in Australia, told Front Page Football: “If I discovered these boots ten years ago, I would wear these boots overseas in my career.” Western United midfielder Angus Thurgate called them “the comfiest boots I’ve ever worn”.

The mural moment

Richmond was chosen for the mural because of its location. The suburb sits at the centre of Melbourne’s sporting precinct, five minutes’ walk from the MCG and AAMI Park. It is already home to murals of AFL players. Rowena Corner Store owner Con, who agreed to host the artwork, had previously welcomed murals of Dusty Martin and an AFLW player.

“We didn’t have access to Harry because he was in the US competing,” brand director Rishi said. “We couldn’t do a photoshoot. So we had to be clever. The best ideas come from real time, aligned with what the public discourse looks like. Once we saw his Wikipedia page updated to refer to him as the Minister of Defence, we knew we could play into this.”

Ledge incorporated an existing window into the design to create a net behind Souttar’s figure. The mural appeared the morning of the Paraguay match, when Australia’s clean sheet sent them into the knockout phase.

The World Cup provided a massive backdrop. The Socceroos’ run captivated the nation: 4.84 million Australians tuned in to the Paraguay match, making it the most-watched World Cup match in SBS history at the time, with an average audience of 3.086 million . The final reached 5.26 million viewers, and cumulative tournament reach hit 18.04 million— 64 per cent of Australia’s population. SBS director of sport Ken Shipp said: “We’ve never seen engagement at this level.” Mizuno spent comparatively little and had Channel 7 and Channel 9 on site.

The commercial question

For a brand with limited marketing firepower, organic PR coverage is the prize. The question for the company’s Oceania division, still in growth mode, is whether a mural and a handful of player endorsements can convert into sustained commercial traction. Retail partnerships with Ultra Football, which has created a dedicated Mizuno space at its Melbourne store, suggest the company is thinking beyond campaigns.

Mizuno’s European expansion has taken a different path. The company signed a five-year deal to become AS Monaco’s technical equipment partner from the 2025-26 season, its first entry into Ligue 1. It already has a presence in Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A. In Australia, institutional partnerships are harder to secure. The approach has been slower: build through athletes, then through community, then through culture.

The Queensland government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mizuno in March 2026 to explore the Japan-Australia Sports & Health Innovation Exchange (JASHIE), a two-year partnership focused on sport and health innovation . The agreement supports Queensland’s preparations for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The mural campaign reflected a broader trend in sporting brand marketing, where IP restrictions and athlete availability increasingly demand creative solutions. “I love what Levi’s did because they were able to lean into their brand codes and tell what I believe to be the most memorable advertising story from the World Cup,” Rishi said. “This is a different page out of fundamentally the same playbook.”

Mizuno’s boots are not cheap. The Made-in-Japan models retail well above competitors’ offerings. The brand’s pitch rests on quality and heritage, not price or volume. That is a harder sell in a country where discounting dominates and cost-of-living pressures are squeezing households.

The Souttar mural will eventually fade or be painted over. Mizuno is betting that by the time it does, enough Australian football fans will have noticed the three stripes’ quieter rival.

What Football Queensland’s link with Green Room Futures Means as Pathway Strategy Broadens

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Image Credit: Shutterstock

Football Queensland has signed a multi-year extension and expansion of its partnership with Green Room Futures, formalising the private provider as the state body’s “Official US College & Tour Partner” and adding an annual United States tour for Football Queensland Academy players to the existing college-placement program.

From advisory model to integrated pathway

The agreement marks a substantive evolution in the governing body’s pathway architecture rather than a standalone sponsorship announcement. The two organisations have worked together since at least 2024, when Football Queensland first appointed Green Room Futures as its preferred US college partner and began rolling out athlete information sessions across metropolitan and regional centres. The new arrangement embeds that relationship more deeply into the academy ecosystem by linking advisory services with an international touring product.

In its announcement, Football Queensland said the expanded partnership would offer academy players exposure to US college environments, international competition and broader education-and-sport decision-making support. Chief executive Robert Cavallucci said the relationship had already assisted Queensland athletes to pursue opportunities overseas and that the introduction of an annual tour would strengthen development outcomes for players across the state’s regional footprint. Green Room Futures director Matt Wade said the expansion reflected strong demand for structured US pathways and would provide athletes with more direct insight into student-athlete systems.

A constrained domestic market

For Football Queensland, the strategic rationale means a collegiate model is now an established part of the global football labour market, particularly for players seeking a dual track in education and high-performance sport. In an Australian landscape where professional opportunities remain selective and uneven, college pathways provide a parallel route with different risk settings for families. That logic has been gaining institutional acceptance across the country, and Football Queensland’s move suggests it sees formal international exposure as a competitive differentiator within domestic talent development.

The policy and governance questions are equally clear. The public announcement outlines ambition, but provides limited operational detail on affordability, cohort selection and support settings for regional participants. In practical terms, these details will determine whether the program functions as a broad-based development mechanism or as a premium pathway accessed primarily by households able to absorb compounding costs.

International youth tours involve direct and indirect expenses that typically include flights, insurance, accommodation, tournament costs, travel preparation and time-off-work burdens for families, with regional players often carrying additional domestic travel requirements before departure. Green Room Futures’ publicly available materials also indicate paid service structures within broader college-placement support. None of that is unusual in this market segment; it is, however, central to any serious assessment of access and equity outcomes.

The expanded partnership therefore sits at the intersection of football development strategy and distributional policy. If the tour becomes an informal gatekeeper to college-facing visibility, then financial design features move from administrative detail to core pathway governance. Without those mechanisms, even merit-led programs can produce systematically narrow outcomes because the input conditions are unequal.

For Football Queensland, the outcomes are likely to turn on implementation transparency over the next one to two intake cycles. A cohort profile that is geographically concentrated or socioeconomically narrow would invite predictable criticism, particularly given repeated statewide positioning in Football Queensland’s academy communications. Conversely, early publication of eligibility frameworks, financial assistance settings and regional participation targets would strengthen claims that the program is designed as a genuine statewide pipeline rather than a metropolitan premium add-on.

There is also a broader sector trend at play. Australian sporting bodies increasingly rely on specialist private partners to deliver pathway components once managed internally or left to informal networks. The model can improve expertise and execution speed, but it also shifts part of the development interface into commercial structures. In that context, governing bodies carry a heightened obligation to disclose how partner-delivered opportunities align with public-facing participation commitments, especially where youth athletes and family finances are involved.

What comes next

Well-structured US pathway programs can materially improve athlete decision quality, reduce information asymmetry, and create legitimate post-school options in a constrained professional market. Exposure to college environments can help families evaluate trade-offs around education, migration and sporting progression with greater clarity. For some players, that can be decisive.

The question for Football Queensland is whether the benefits are distributed in a way consistent with its statewide mandate. The announcement establishes intent and strategic direction; the next phase requires publication-grade detail. For a program framed around opportunity, credibility will depend less on partnership language and more on measurable participation design: who is selected, who is supported, and who is priced out.

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