How high, how far, how fast can sports go?

Instagram account “Sportsball” helps you see the stories behind the stats

Behind athletic drama, passion, and personalities, there is data. To both casual and avid fans, it’s no surprise that the business of sports runs on data and stats. Revenue, partnerships, fan engagement, records, rules, valuations, and attendance are all part of the story.

Enter the sports visualization Instagram account: “@_sportsball,” where all this data gets a narrative treatment–making sense of the basic statistics behind sports and the not-so-obvious statistics.

Something like these: 

Kentucky Derby stud fees [one horse charges $250K per stud fee]

WNBA ticket prices have increased and are higher for Indiana away games

The English Premier League team qualifications and their league structure explained

US Open’s impact on women’s sports thanks to the impact of Billie Jean King

Travel miles for NFL teams with the Chargers traveling twice as far as the Commanders this year

The Masters’ revenue and nonrevenue shows it’s not all about the money

Casual fans, avid fans, and fans in between makeup about 70% of Americans who consider themselves sports fans, according to a 2023 St. Bonaventure/Siena survey. It’s a fitting sports stat because Riley Martin (along with his wife, Claire), has a passion for sports data. They started “sportsball” to give context to the data side of sports as they explain here.

For those of us who are not “numbers people” or are in that casual fan category (26% of Americans), when we were treated to the 1085th unique NFL score in September between the 49ers and Jets (32-19), Riley put this in context. He broke down all unique scores in NFL history where you can “see” where this score occurs among all scores alongside the most commonly occurring game scores.

What if football isn’t your thing? Riley and Claire find stories far beyond visualizing the data behind the big four American-focused leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL). Take the Olympics.

With unlimited opportunities for perspective, 13 posts were devoted to the Olympic games this past summer. Do you know the largest 10 countries participating in the Olympics without a medal? How about a perspective on Noah Lyles’ photo finish in the 100 meters?

Bringing the numbers to life through data visualization is what Riley does as his day job for a fintech company. And it’s also his passion–bringing sports to life for the casual fan.

“It reaches the teacher, the firefighter, the casual person who watches sports once a week and wants to learn more,” Riley said. “Those on the outside looking in, and especially those in sports gambling, for example. The everyday person.” That’s his audience. 

With folks used to watching short-term videos (Riley’s run between still illustrations up to 90 seconds), it’s no wonder his audience has grown and his skills have started to become in demand with partner projects with Yahoo Sports (NBA) and with the NFL UK.

In addition to his hand drawings using pens on paper (so many dots!), you will see drawings on windows with a set of colorful markers (the lighting causes challenges) and even on the kitchen counter! The evolution and mix of his media are purposeful, as are the voices used.

“I make these so people like her (Claire) can be more comfortable with sports,” he said, adding, “When making visuals, she will help clarify when it’s not simple enough and be my last line of defense as a gut check” before sending his creations out into the world.

In addition to handling the admin behind the magic, Claire does the voiceover for women’s representation in their videos. While Riley doesn’t beat the drum too hard on specific issues, he is aware that particular concepts should be covered by women. Regardless, the approach is to keep sports approachable.

His skills come from the courses he took in college from drafting to data analytics and now he has learned video editing on his own. The process has evolved as well. A peek behind the action can be seen in this one where he maps out what he will explore about The Masters.

While Riley says his goal is not to chase virality, he gets a kick out of the number of shares and likes his posts get. He isn’t super technical about it. “My thesis is that things I like are cool and tell a story. The followers will come.”

Even though the audience is aimed at casual fans, it’s almost certain that the 57% of all other sports fans will find just as much value behind the action as on the screen.