During Arsenal’s win over Newcastle United at St James Park on Saturday, one man managed to get more attention than the players and Andre Marriner combined after being spotted with an Xbox controller.
He was seen at the game, and after a picture was tweeted of him, he quickly went viral on social media, with people speculating about just what he was doing.
It turns out that he hadn’t lost his mind after all, and was actually there for his employers, Chyron Hego.
Said man was compiling stats and data about the players and the game.
The stats are then collected and given to Opta and the Premier League, with six HD cameras and three members of staff at the game.
Head of Chyron Hego, David Eccles, spoke to the i100 and said:
We collect performance data on all the players and referees, data such as distance of every player, the speeds of all the players including when working at high-intensity and so forth.
We also collect possession; which is actually what the Xbox controller is for. We know where every single player is on the field 25-times every second.
Our data is everywhere. People just don’t know it’s us.
It happens at every Premier League match and it’s pretty important stuff, so I’d like to think I don’t get too many weird looks.
Although it would look a bit strange to the people who have no idea what I’m doing! It’s actually great fun, and how many people can say they watch Premier League football for a job.
