West Ham United FC partner with AWS and Crayon

West Ham United Football Club have announced a partnership with cloud computing giant Amazon Web Services (AWS) and competitive intelligence platform Crayon.

The partnership is aimed at developing “an AI-powered football scouting platform”. West Ham hope to come up with an AI-powered end-to-end scouting tool to help with recruitment for both their first team and the academy, using Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Bedrock for artificial intelligence and machine learning integration.

AWS will provide its tech and expertise to help the club make “evidence-led decisions on talent identification and recruitment, alongside traditional scouting practices.” Crayon’s Center of Excellence and the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center will also be used to help the Hammers “build and implement generative AI solutions.”

Maximilian Hahn, Head of Technical Recruitment & Analysis at West Ham United FC, commented:

“The platform we are developing using AI and machine learning builds comprehensive models to evaluate players across multiple dimensions – performance, playing style, team dynamics, age, experience, and financial fit – ensuring recruitment aligns with team goals. By automating and streamlining these processes, we can analyse vast datasets across markets and efficiently identify top talent, making player selection more strategic, consistent, and future-focused.”

Nathan Thompson, Executive Director at West Ham United FC, said:

“This collaboration marks a significant milestone for West Ham United, as we put ourselves at the forefront of innovation by working alongside AWS and Crayon, both industry global leaders in their respective fields. As a Club, to have an AI-powered talent identification platform which is solely tailored to the needs of our scouting and recruitment team, will ensure we continue our proud heritage of attracting exciting talent to London Stadium.

“West Ham United are proud to be bold and forward thinking in our approach and this groundbreaking announcement highlights our commitment to utilising innovation on and off the pitch to achieve our goals. We are looking forward to beginning this collaboration alongside AWS and Crayon in what is a pioneering moment for the future of talent identification in the sport.”

Tim Ellefsen, VP of Public Cloud at Crayon, stated:

“Building on successful AI projects in the German Bundesliga, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of what this technology can achieve. This collaboration between ourselves, AWS, and West Ham United is a testament to our dedication to innovation and excellence. Leveraging data as a key competitive advantage means that this AI-powered scouting tool will revolutionise the way football talent is scouted and evaluated, delivering unmatched accuracy and efficiency to the process.”

Joe Carroll, UK Head of Telco, Media, Entertainment, Games and Sports at AWS, added:

“The world’s top sports organisations are increasingly using AWS to build data-driven solutions and reinvent the way sports are experienced, played, and managed. We’re proud to collaborate with West Ham United and Crayon to build this innovative AI-powered platform, which will revolutionise both talent scouting within the club, and the business of football.”