OPTA | The Bloomberg Index of Football

What if you could measure football the way Bloomberg measures markets? That is essentially what Opta is building.

Opta collects huge amounts of data from football matches, passes, shots, tackles, chances, positions and much more. But collecting data is only the beginning. The interesting part is turning all those numbers into something people can understand.

Opta's player ratings attempt to do exactly that. By combining hundreds of performance metrics, they create a single score that helps compare players across positions, teams and competitions.

It turns football into an index. Think of it as a Bloomberg terminal for the pitch. Clubs can use this data to find players, compare performances and identify trends. Broadcasters use it to explain games. Fans use it to understand what happened beyond the final score.

Opta also ranks teams globally through its Power Rankings, creating another way to compare clubs that might never play each other.

The bigger idea is simple: Football is becoming measurable in ways it never was before. Goals still decide games. But data is increasingly helping clubs understand everything that happens before the goal.

Opta isn't just counting football. It's building the numbers behind it.