StatMuse
{{Infobox website
| name = StatMuse
| logo = File:StatMuse_logo.jpg
| logo_size = 250px
| logo_alt =
| logo_caption = StatMuse logo
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| url = {{URL|https://statmuse.com/}}
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| type = Sports statistics
| founded = {{start date and age|2014}}
| location = San Francisco, California, United States
| registration =
| language = English
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}}
StatMuse Inc. is an American artificial intelligence company founded in 2014. The company maintains its own eponymous website where it hosts a database of sports statistics.
History
Friends Adam Elmore and Eli Dawson founded the company in 2014. In email correspondence to the Springfield News-Leader, Elmore detailed that he and Dawson, fans of the National Basketball Association (NBA), were compelled to create StatMuse after they realized there was not a place online they could search "lebron james most points" [sic] and quickly get a result "showing his highest scoring games."{{cite web|last=Gounley|first=Thomas|url=https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/business/2015/07/10/sports-stats-startup-local-ties-selected-disney-accelerator/29963871/|title=Sports stats startup with local ties selected for Disney accelerator|work=Springfield News-Leader|date=July 10, 2015|accessdate=August 30, 2023}} As a startup, the company's goal was to utilize a type of artificial intelligence called natural language processing (NLP) for sports.{{cite web|last=Green|first=Will|url=https://fortune.com/2016/06/15/startup-sports-stats/|url-access=registration|title=Meet the Startup That Wants You to See Sports Stats in a Whole New Way|work=Fortune|date=June 15, 2016|accessdate=May 27, 2022|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230829054443/https://fortune.com/2016/06/15/startup-sports-stats/|archive-date=August 29, 2023}}
In 2015, the company was part of the second group of startups accepted into the Disney Accelerator program.{{cite web|last=Tepper|first=Fitz|url=https://techcrunch.com/2015/07/09/disneys-startup-accelerator-enters-its-sophomore-year-with-a-new-batch-of-companies/|title=Disney's Startup Accelerator Enters Its Sophomore Year With A New Batch Of Companies|work=TechCrunch|date=July 9, 2015|accessdate=May 27, 2022}} The company ultimately received the backing of The Walt Disney Company, Techstars, Allen & Company, the NFL Players Association, Greycroft and NBA Commissioner David Stern.{{cite web|last=Fitzpatrick|first=John|url=https://nflpa.com/partners/posts/nflpa-announces-strategic-investment-and-partnership-with-statmuse|title=NFLPA Announces Strategic Investment and Partnership with StatMuse|publisher=NFLPA|date=September 7, 2017|accessdate=May 27, 2022}} As part of their partnership with Disney, StatMuse signed a content deal with ESPN (owned by Disney) to provide stats content on social media and television during the 2015–16 NBA season.{{cite web|last=Lunden|first=Ingrid|url=https://techcrunch.com/2016/01/27/statmuse-picks-up-10m-for-its-ai-based-graphic-search-engine-for-sports-statistics/|title=StatMuse Picks Up $10M For Its AI-Based, Graphic Search Engine For Sports Statistics|work=TechCrunch|date=January 27, 2016|accessdate=August 29, 2023}}
Initially, the company only had stats available for the NBA, but eventually expanded to provide stats for the other major North American sports leagues. The company's initial demographic was players of fantasy sports, but eventually expanded to target general sports fans as well. StatMuse offers responses to user queries in the voices of sports-related public figures.{{cite web|last=Colaner|first=Seth|url=https://venturebeat.com/ai/statmuse-combined-its-nlp-stack-with-matthew-berrys-fantasy-football-predictions/|title=StatMuse combined its NLP stack with Matthew Berry's fantasy football predictions|work=VentureBeat|date=November 14, 2019|accessdate=August 29, 2023}} Dawson shared with VentureBeat that StatMuse brings people in and record them saying different words and phrases. These celebrity voices were made accessible through Google's Google Assistant service, Microsoft's Cortana virtual assistant, and Amazon's Echo devices.{{cite web|last=Bastone|first=Nick|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/google-assistant-invests-statmuse-celebrity-athlete-voices-2019-2|url-access=subscription|title=Google invested in a startup with tech that uses the voices of NFL players to answer questions on Google Home devices|work=Business Insider|publisher=Insider Inc.|date=February 14, 2019|accessdate=August 30, 2023|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230830062041/https://www.businessinsider.com/google-assistant-invests-statmuse-celebrity-athlete-voices-2019-2|archive-date=August 30, 2023}}
The company launched its phone app in September 2017. Through the app, users can query StatMuse's sports statistics database using their own natural language.{{cite web|last=Tepper|first=Fitz|url=https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/07/statmuse-lets-you-ask-a-sports-question-and-hear-a-response-from-an-nfl-star/|title=StatMuse lets you ask a sports question and hear a response from an NFL star|work=TechCrunch|date=September 7, 2017|accessdate=May 27, 2022}} Upon the launch of the phone app, Fitz Tepper of TechCrunch wrote that: "The technology isn't perfect – some of the pauses between words are a bit awkward – making it clear that some phrases is being stitched together on the fly. But this is the exception, and on the whole most responses sound pretty good." StatMuse plug-ins for Slack and Facebook Messenger were also made, providing text-based sports stats. In 2019, StatMuse received investment from the Google Assistant Investment program.
The service launched a premium option dubbed StatMuse+ in May 2023, offering options that had previously been included for free, such as unlimited searches and full results in data tables.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}} The premium version also included early access to new features and a personalized searched history, as well as not having ads.{{Cite web |title=Sign Up For StatMuse+ |url=https://www.statmuse.com/signup |access-date=May 1, 2023 |publisher=StatMuse |language=en}} It was met with mixed feedback.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}
In January 2024, the service launched a Premier League version of the website dubbed StatMuse FC. https://twitter.com/statmusefc/status/1750519573898776576 It is planned to introduce more leagues in the website. https://twitter.com/statmusefc/status/1750519576725733624
References
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Category:2014 establishments in California
Category:American companies established in 2014
Category:American sport websites
Category:Companies based in San Francisco
Category:Internet properties established in 2014
Category:Natural language processing