Road to SFS 25 – Interview with Sergio Gianotti, Head of AWS Public Sector: transforming sports through cloud, data, and innovation

Just days before the SFS 25, we interviewed Sergio Gianotti, Head of AWS Public Sector. AWS is one of the leading technology companies that has made a strong commitment to transforming sports through cloud computing and analytics.

How do you position yourselves in this area, and what are the focus areas?

“Digital transformation in sports is no longer optional; it’s imperative. The sports industry can revolutionize fan experiences, athlete performance, and event management through technology, and AWS wants to be at the forefront of this transformation. Sports organizations can leverage our cloud capabilities to drive innovation, and AWS acknowledges its role in shaping the future of sports. We integrate cutting-edge solutions into sporting events, from real-time analytics to fan engagement platforms, with the aim of creating a more connected and data-driven sports ecosystem. In major sporting events, AWS has implemented solutions like machine learning for performance analytics and has collaborated with sports organizations to enhance viewing experience and create deeper fan engagement”.

Can you provide a significant practical example of AWS’s commitment to sports transformation?

“As a practical example, AWS maintains strategic partnerships with major sports organizations. Our work with Formula 1 stands out as particularly comprehensive. F1 generates over a million data points per second from each car’s sensors, which AWS processes in real-time to power F1 Insights. These analytics help fans understand complex race strategies and car performance. For example, AWS’s “Braking Performance” insight visualizes exactly where and how drivers apply brakes through corners, revealing how aggressive braking techniques can gain crucial milliseconds on competitors.

In football, the Bundesliga showcases how technology enhances both broadcasts and digital experiences. Their “Match Facts” powered by AWS include advanced statistics like xGoals and Speed Alert, delivered in real-time during broadcasts. A specific implementation was during Bayern Munich vs. Borussia Dortmund, where the “Average Formation” insight revealed how Bayern’s defensive line positioned significantly higher than Dortmund’s, explaining their dominant possession statistics. The league also uses Amazon Personalize to deliver tailored content recommendations across their digital platforms, increasing fan engagement by over 30%.

The NFL partnership demonstrates our commitment to both analytics and player safety. Their Next Gen Stats program tracks player and ball movement using RFID technology, generating insights for teams, broadcasters, and fans. For instance, during Super Bowl LV, AWS analytics revealed how Tampa Bay’s defensive scheme limited Kansas City’s offensive production by tracking quarterback pressure rates and receiver separation metrics. The “Digital Athlete” program uses AWS machine learning to create digital replicas of player movements, simulating game scenarios to identify injury risks. This work has directly contributed to rule changes that reduced concussions by 25%.

Our partnership with the NBA represents another significant transformation. As the NBA’s official cloud and AI provider, AWS powers the league’s advanced analytics platform, delivering next-generation statistics like defensive impact ratings and shot difficulty measurements. During the 2023 NBA Finals, AWS analytics quantified Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić’s court vision by tracking passing angles and defensive positioning that weren’t visible to the naked eye. We’ve also helped the NBA launch their Coach’s Box application, which provides coaching staffs with real-time analytics and video during games via tablets on the bench. Perhaps most impressively, AWS supports the NBA’s massive content archive migration, using machine learning to automatically tag and categorize decades of game footage, making it searchable and accessible for content creation and historical analysis.

For rugby fans, our partnership with Six Nations has transformed how this complex sport is presented to viewers. The “Kick Predictor” calculates the probability of successful penalty kicks based on position, weather conditions, and player statistics. During the England vs. Wales match in 2023, the system accurately predicted a difficult 78% probability conversion that proved decisive in the final score. The “Match Momentum Tracker” helps casual viewers understand which team has control at any moment.

Beyond these examples, AWS has expanded into additional sports domains such as PGA Tour, where our ShotLink Plus system captures and analyzes over 32,000 shots per tournament using high-speed cameras and ML models. This powers the “True Distance” feature showing how environmental factors affect ball travel and has helped increase viewer engagement time by 25% among casual golf fans. With Major League Baseball, AWS powers Statcast, which tracks player and ball movement at 60 frames per second. This enables “Pitch Analysis” visualizations showing how specific pitch sequences exploit batter weaknesses. The Seattle Mariners specifically used these insights to improve their pitchers’ sequencing strategy, contributing to a 12% reduction in opponent batting average.

Another example is what we did for the Olympic Games. For Tokyo 2020/2021, AWS processed over 3 petabytes of competition data. Our “Athlete Moment” feature allowed competitors to connect virtually with family members immediately after events despite COVID restrictions. We also powered real-time swimming analytics showing underwater stroke efficiency comparisons that revealed how gold medalists gained crucial advantages. We collaborate with the Women’s Tennis Association, where AWS analytics have transformed how tennis statistics are presented to fans. The “Serve Placement Analysis” shows exactly how players like Coco Gauff strategically target opponent weaknesses, visualizing serve clustering patterns that explain match strategies in accessible ways.

What makes these examples significant is that they’re solving real business and competitive challenges. They’re enhancing the quality of competition, improving athlete welfare, creating more engaging content, and delivering personalized experiences to fans. AWS enables this holistic transformation because we combine cloud infrastructure with purpose-built sports solutions and deep industry expertise. We’re not just providing technology; we’re partnering with sports organizations to reimagine what’s possible in their domain”.

GenAI is transforming our world, what kind of impact do you see in the sport industry?

“Regarding GenAI’s impact on sports, AWS is actively integrating generative AI capabilities into sports applications. They have developed solutions for reinventing live sports searches using Amazon Bedrock and generative AI agents. AWS provides secure, scalable cloud infrastructure for companies to leverage these models and transform how they develop and distribute content. This technology enables use cases such as producing high-quality content at scale, optimizing subscriber experiences, enriching broadcast content, automated highlight generation, and automatic content tagging”.

AWS, in general, is a leader in the market for digital transformation with a data-driven approach. How is this applied in the sports industry?

“AWS is revolutionizing the sports industry through our cutting-edge technology and data-driven insights. We enable sports organizations to enhance fan engagement, optimize performance analytics, and create immersive experiences that fundamentally change how sports are played, watched, and enjoyed. We’re seeing tremendous engagement results — sports content generates 5.8x more impressions than non-sports content, with 90% of video views on AWS accounts being driven by sports content. What makes our approach unique is our focus on building a complete ecosystem. We provide everything from data integration and analytics processing to cloud infrastructure, all while maintaining strong security and compliance standards“.

What makes your approach unique is our focus on building a complete ecosystem?

“We provide everything from data integration and analytics processing to cloud infrastructure, all while maintaining strong security and compliance standards. We’re not just providing technology; we’re helping sports organizations build a sustainable foundation for continuous innovation and improvement“.

Any final thoughts on AWS’s role in the sports industry?

“What excites us the most about our work is that technology is enhancing rather than replacing the human elements that make sports special. The emotional connection fans feel when their team scores a goal or wins a championship — that’s irreplaceable. What AWS is doing is amplifying those moments, making them more accessible, more engaging, and more meaningful. As we continue to innovate alongside our sports partners, our north star remains the same: how can technology create better experiences for athletes, teams, leagues, broadcasters, and most importantly, fans? That question guides everything we do at AWS Sports, and we are incredibly optimistic about where it will lead us in the coming years”.