Activity Report PySport
Fiscal year: March 2024 – December 2024
PySport Foundation was established in March 2024 with the aim of promoting open-source sports analytics and supporting a growing community of sports-data scientists, students, coaches and sports organisations. Believing that knowledge-sharing, collaboration and accessibility are the keys to innovation in sport, we carried out a wide range of activities over the past year.
Incorporation Phase and Initial Activities
- March 2024
PySport was formally incorporated before a notary. Shortly afterwards we organised our first international event: a PySport × StatsPerform meetup at StatsPerform’s headquarters in London, featuring three industry guest speakers.
We also attended the Opta Forum to present our mission to professionals in the sports-data world.
Online Visibility and Community Building
- June 2024
Launch of the official PySport website, including informative pages and an overview of our activities. We also produced physical banners to support our presence at events. - July 2024
In partnership with PyData Eindhoven we organised a large-scale event at the PSV Stadium centred on sports data. - September 2024
Delivery of an educational session at a secondary school, inspiring pupils to write final-year projects on sport and data.
Partnerships and Growing Impact
- October 2024
Initial exploratory talks with NOC*NSF about potential collaboration. - November 2024
International cooperation expanded with a joint meetup between the Sports Analytics Club (MIT, Boston) and PySport.
In the same month PySport was officially registered as a Public Benefit Organisation (ANBI). - December 2024
Launch of a donation campaign to secure structural funding for our activities.
Outlook
For 2025 we have planned a variety of community events, educational projects and further collaboration with sports organisations—such as the forthcoming Opta Meetup. We will continue to connect people, lower barriers to participation in sports-data initiatives and strengthen the open-source sports-analytics landscape.
In the short term we aim to launch the “Building Bridges” initiative, designed to bring together developers of open-source packages within sports analytics and improve integration.