The Age of Data

A note from the founder of Apex146, Scott Robinson

Every major industry, including the sports industry, has begun the inevitable push towards advanced performance analytics. It has become a necessity for many to thrive and in some cases, to survive. Just as importantly, analytics can unlock substantial hidden value for those that can harness the power.

Aside from being a motorcycle racing enthusiast and coach, I built my career in the trading business and have witnessed the range of success and failure that companies face. This cuts across many complex ecosystems spanning from Wall Street to global commodities trading. Some of the lessons I’ve learned are quite simple in retrospect, with many not so obvious to the casual onlooker.

The transformative events may be different by timeframe and the sophistication of analytics that caused major shifts, but all have a common story....Those who succeeded had the foresight and took the risk to change as new technologies became available. Those who failed invariably resisted change, waited too long before they got with the program, or lacked the skills necessary to play. In some cases those who failed were relegated to 2nd and 3rd tier players and in other cases, they went under.

Much like the global commodities markets, athletes live in a complex physical environment that is continually changing. It is an environment that can be captured through performance metrics that are mathematically driven. Like trading, it’s all about finding “the edge” before others. That edge may only last a short time before the majority adapts to it.

Similar to the systems that support the superheroes of the hour on Wall Street and in Chicago, Apex146 identifies “the edge” for any given athlete versus the field through complex algorithms and proprietary data. The team does this in a completely impartial system that measures the reasons for success and the reasons for failure.

Think of us as a talent scout that helps fans, sponsors, teams and riders better understand who is on the winning track versus those that are at risk of failure in this complex environment. This is not just who came in what place in a race or season, but why riders are improving or not across eight metrics for every circuit and every sector of every lap over time.

Remember, racing isn’t just an athlete with a fast bike, but a mosaic of variable circumstances. We are here to identify those variables and shed light on how they ultimately influence race day.