11 Questions With Dustin Boettger

The pursuit of wisdom in any walk of life quickly reveals that what you think you know is not nearly enough to get you to where you want to go. As I'm starting out in my football scouting journey I challenged myself to reach out to those already working in various roles in football to answer a short list of questions. My goal wasn't to get answers but relevant perspectives on the game within the game.

Here is Dustin Boettger, founder of @info_gsn

How did your first opportunity in football come about?

It has all started about 15 years ago. At that time, my brother played as a goalkeeper at the youth academy of 1899 Hoffenheim. They needed somebody to write match reports about their Under 17 and Under 19 sides. Non paid, but my first "job" inside the business.

What attracted you to scouting/analytics? What’s more intriguing now names or numbers?

My father is from Canada, so I have grown up with all the American sports. American football, basketball, baseball, hockey. I have also collected all these trading cards. And these trading cards are heavily based on numbers. So collecting these cards and creating teams based on these numbers was my start into analytics. On a very, very low level of course.

When I got more and more involved into professional football, I always thought, that my opinions on players are too subjective, too much based on things which doesn't matter, like a players haircut, the colour of his boots, stuff like that.

So I was searching for something, which makes the whole scouting process a lot more objective. That was back in 2010 and we were far away from the whole scouting and; analytics industry nowadays.So I have created my own analytics system from scratch. In the end I have founded my own analytics company.

Names or numbers? Well, I think it is both. Watch a specific player for the first time, never heard his name before and crunching his numbers afterwards was always fascinating for me and it still is, to be honest.

For those unfamiliar with your work, how do you help clubs make better decisions?

We have created our very own rating system, the GSN Index. This index makes it possible to rate and analyze over 440.000 players worldwide. With our index, we are able to tell you, how a good a player currently is and how good he could become in the future (best possible development). 

What makes the index so special is, that we are not only analyzing what happens on the pitch during a match( with our performance score) but we are also analyzing over 80 different footballing skills, the potential and the level of play for each player. And we are not only offering our Index. Expected goals, expected assists, xGOT, action scores, error rates, players involvements and so much more.

It is a lot easier for a professional club to setup an effective scouting department using our GSN Index and our data. 

You are able to get tons of information for hundreds and thousands of players with a simple mouse click and you are able to filter and search for the right players before you send your scouts around the globe. It is so much more cost effective, especially for smaller clubs.

What popular trend or misconception do you disagree with? Why?

I totally disagree with most of the sports media, judging attacking players by the goals they have scored, creative players by the assists they have played or goalkeepers by how many goals they have conceded. Football is far to complex to decide, which player is good or bad by just using these numbers. Use smarter numbers! Use "Expected goals", use "Expected assists"! It is time for those models and numbers to go mainstream.

If you could start over what skill would you build on first?

Definitely coding. "R" and "Python" for example. Knowing all this stuff right from the beginning would have make the whole GSN setup process so much easier.

Do you see player trading is all the rage - how you leverage data to help clubs make sound decisions in the transfer market?

First of all we have to tell several clubs that they don`t have to be afraid to use data! Many managers, sporting directors and scouts don't want to use data. They trust their eye and their intuition more than numbers, especially in Germany. So we want to give them the right numbers – easy and understandable. If all these data is clear and understandable, the decision process is so much more effective and also smarter.

With data, clubs are able to target players from smaller countries and leagues. Players they would not normally scout. Clubs are also able to find undervalued players around the globe or overvalued players in their own squad. Last but not least clubs are also able to define player profiles based on their specific requirements for their style of play. With data, this is so much easier than only based on human decision making.

What is your favorite sports moment? Why?

My favourite moment was the World cup final back in 1998. I was 13 years old. France vs. Brazil, Zinedine Zidane with his two goals and an incredible performances. At this time I was just familiar with all the German players, Klinsmann, Köpke, Häßler, Matthäus. I have never seen a player like Zidane before. He was ahead of everybody, fantastic vision, always able to create spaces, find his teammates with incredible passes. He became my favourite player from this day on. And he still is. His style of play changed my way to watch football.

What is the long term vision of GSN? 

We want to make our Index better and better in the future. Create new data models which are able to explain the game of football better than all that stuff from today. Tracking data comes into my mind. Not only from the big leagues but also from smaller leagues worldwide. If we know exactly what each players does on the pitch during a 90 minute match, I think we are able to create a lot more accurate data models to evaluate players.

We also want to make the usage of data standard inside professional football clubs.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into scouting/analytics?

Create your own stuff. Your own scouting reports. Your own data models. And share it with the football analytics community. That is how we started GSN. That is how some of the smartest guys around founded their own companies or work for professional clubs. Create your own twitter account and show us, what you got. Almost everybody in this industry is willing to help, with data, advices etc.

What is your favorite non - work app/tool to use?

I use the Transfermarkt app on a daily basis. I want to be up to date with every transfer or transfer rumour worldwide.

What other sport/hobby/discipline do you feel improves your work as an analyst? Why?

Well, I have already talked about my childhood with all the American sports. I still watch a lot of it, especially hockey. I always take a closer look on how clubs from those sports evaluate and analyze players and if something from their stuff is adaptable to football. Not only American sports by the way, also from sports like cricket, tennis, volleyball etc. To be open minded is one of the most important things in this industry.

Besides Sports analytics, I have also studied Cultural sciences. I am heavily interested into art, I like the different ideas to visualize something. Which colours to use if you want to tell something. This really helps to create infographics or our brand new GSN data portal, which should be available in April.