Pieter Robberechts
probberechts.bsky.social
Pieter Robberechts
@probberechts.bsky.social
PhD student @dtai-kuleuven.bsky.social, applying Machine Learning on sports data.
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
We're expanding the Club Brugge Football Data Science team. As our Football Data Scientist, you'll work with one of the most advanced analytics infrastructures in football to help management, scouting, and analysis staff turn data into better decisions.

jobs.clubbrugge.be/en/football-data-scientist
Football Data Scientist at Club Brugge
As a Football Data Scientist, you will be responsible for researching and developing advanced models and metrics for analyzing player and team performances and evaluating potential acquisitions for Cl...
jobs.clubbrugge.be
October 30, 2025 at 12:00 PM
IMPECT released a season of public event data! ⚽

There’s already plenty of event data out there — so why care? Because IMPECT’s data adds some really cool and unique features, such as their Packing Zones.

And with the new kloppy v3.18 release, it's really easy to get started with this dataset.
🚀 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲!

We are thrilled to announce the release of our 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 – the 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥, covering the 2023/24 𝐁𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧, including Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s historic invincible campaign.
October 23, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
We’re excited to launch the 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐗 𝐏𝐲𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐂𝐮𝐩 - a hackathon-style challenge that will bring together the community to collaborate, compete, and innovate using open-source SkillCorner data.

👉 Sign up pysport.org/analytics-cup
October 14, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
Top stuff once again. Bringing validity to the conversation which is too often overlooked in the football analysis space.
Before an app launches, it undergoes usability testing. Why shouldn't an advanced sports metric?

In our latest blog, we propose 4 criteria:
1️⃣ Trustworthy
2️⃣ Novel
3️⃣ Intuitive
4️⃣ Useful

Then, we put VAEP to the test...

\w @jessejdavis.bsky.social & Maaike Van Roy

dtai.cs.kuleuven.be/sports/blog/...
How Do We Know a Metric Is Good? A Case Study on VAEP
In sports analytics, the primary goal is to develop indicators that quantify the skills, capabilities, and tendencies of athletes and…
dtai.cs.kuleuven.be
September 22, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Before an app launches, it undergoes usability testing. Why shouldn't an advanced sports metric?

In our latest blog, we propose 4 criteria:
1️⃣ Trustworthy
2️⃣ Novel
3️⃣ Intuitive
4️⃣ Useful

Then, we put VAEP to the test...

\w @jessejdavis.bsky.social & Maaike Van Roy

dtai.cs.kuleuven.be/sports/blog/...
How Do We Know a Metric Is Good? A Case Study on VAEP
In sports analytics, the primary goal is to develop indicators that quantify the skills, capabilities, and tendencies of athletes and…
dtai.cs.kuleuven.be
September 22, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
We can use xG to compute post-hoc win-draw-loss probabilities.

Our new blogpost shows MCMC's estimates of these probabilities are unstable, computing them exactly is faster than approximating them, and MCMC's runtime strongly depends on its implementation.

dtai.cs.kuleuven.be/sports/blog/...
Expected goals and the Monte Carlo Trap
On a team level, xG is often used to assess the quality of the goal scoring opportunities that a team creates and concedes. That is, it…
dtai.cs.kuleuven.be
September 11, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Looking forward to the #MLSA25 workshop next week at @ecmlpkdd.org! We'll have some exciting research on soccer, ultimate frisbee, basketball and table tennis. ⚽🥏🏀🏓

Want a sneak peek? The papers are already available on the workshop website 👇
MLSA 2025
Workshop on Machine Learning and Data Mining for Sports Analytics at ECML/PKDD 2025
dtai.cs.kuleuven.be
September 8, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
The Carnegie Mellon Sports Analytics Conference is an annual event dedicated to highlighting the latest sports research from the statistics and data science community. Registration for the 2025 CMSAConference is open.
🔗 www.cmsaconference.com
September 3, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
“What if, when the opposition has 11 players behind the ball, a centre-back decided it was more worthwhile to ‘kick for touch’ rather than attempt to play through midfield?”

Oh boy do I have a research presentation for you
Boot it: A pragmatic alternative to build up play, Lorenzo Cascioli | Hudl Statsbomb Conference 2024
YouTube video by Hudl Statsbomb
youtu.be
September 4, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
Excited to announce a new paper together with @sigridolthof.bsky.social entitled "Perspectives on data analytics for gaining a competitive advantage in football: computational approaches to tactics".

This is a synthesis article that has 3 key objectives

www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....

1 / 4
Perspectives on data analytics for gaining a competitive advantage in football: computational approaches to tactics
www.tandfonline.com
August 20, 2025 at 6:25 AM
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
🔷 𝐏𝐲𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐗 𝐏𝐲𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐄𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐬! 🔶

On December 9th @PyData Eindhoven and @pysport.org will organize 𝐏𝐲𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐄𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓!

𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨: lnkd.in/eBGWKs3V
August 15, 2025 at 6:44 AM
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
Your fave women’s footie analytics gals (@cata-bush.bsky.social and myself, ofc) are at it again!
Below is a VAEP inspired breakdown of the Women’s Euros group stages - read to see which players and teams have shown out or bombed (whoops, Netherlands 👀):
open.substack.com/pub/beyondth...
5 takeaways from the Women's Euro group stages
The Women’s Euros kicked off at the start of July and Catalina Bush and I launched an online app using the Value Actions by Estimating Probabilities (VAEP) framework. The app is being updated after ev...
open.substack.com
July 15, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
Our Women's Euro 2025 predictions are out! 🔮

Spain 🇪🇸 is our model's favorite to win the title, with Germany 🇩🇪 close behind. Meanwhile, Belgium 🇧🇪 will most likely be eliminated in the group stage.

w\ @jessejdavis.bsky.social

dtai.cs.kuleuven.be/sports/blog/...
Predicting the 2025 Women's European Championship
The UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 will be held in Switzerland in July. Will Spain capture the title after winning the World Cup in 2023? Or will…
dtai.cs.kuleuven.be
June 24, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Our Women's Euro 2025 predictions are out! 🔮

Spain 🇪🇸 is our model's favorite to win the title, with Germany 🇩🇪 close behind. Meanwhile, Belgium 🇧🇪 will most likely be eliminated in the group stage.

w\ @jessejdavis.bsky.social

dtai.cs.kuleuven.be/sports/blog/...
Predicting the 2025 Women's European Championship
The UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 will be held in Switzerland in July. Will Spain capture the title after winning the World Cup in 2023? Or will…
dtai.cs.kuleuven.be
June 24, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
We're looking for an ML Engineer to join our team at Sportec Solutions. Lots of exciting projects in the pipeline, including ones with skeletal-tracking data. Apply or pass it on to someone who might be interested!

sportec-solutions.jobs.personio.de/job/2151299?...
Football Machine Learning Engineer | Jobs at Sportec Solutions AG
At Sportec Solutions, a joint venture between Deltatre and the DFL Group based in Munich, we develop innovative solutions in sports data and technology. Since our founding in 2016, we have been commit...
sportec-solutions.jobs.personio.de
June 17, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
🚀 Ingestify 0.7.0 is live

Parsing football data with kloppy is fun. The hard bit is fetching raw files and keeping them clean and version-safe.

That’s the gap Ingestify fills.

github.com/PySport/inge...
June 12, 2025 at 2:31 PM
I strongly believe biomechanical analysis will be the next big leap in sports analytics—and not just for the pros. I got a glimpse by testing the @runeasi.bsky.social sensor (a @dtai-kuleuven.bsky.social spin-off) and wrote about how it helped during my marathon training → runeasi.ai/my-marathon-...
My Marathon Journey with Runeasi by Pieter Robberechts
Discover my marathon journey with Runeasi by Pieter Robberechts, including my race day experience and new personal best of 2:31:59.
runeasi.ai
June 11, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Had the pleasure of attending the Linköping Hockey Analytics Conference this week. Thought “icing” was just for cakes, but somehow they still let me on stage 😅 Loved the welcoming community and saw lots of familiar ideas with huge potential across sports. #LINHAC
June 8, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
I’m honored by @leanderalphabet.bsky.social excellent write up of our soccer research!

Lots of credit to my wonderful collaborators @janvanhaaren.be @wannesm.bsky.social @probberechts.bsky.social Maaike Lotte Tom @lorenzocascioli.bsky.social @hugoriosneto.bsky.social Max Arne Tim & so many others
June 4, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
The Belgian lab shaping modern soccer’s data revolution
The Belgian lab shaping modern soccer’s data revolution
A small corner of one of the world’s oldest universities has moved the sport forward, and made the argument for research institutions writ large
www.theguardian.com
June 3, 2025 at 1:28 PM
👀 Something's changed at kloppy.pysport.org

We’ve completely rewritten and reorganized 𝐤𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐲's documentation, now with:
• 🚀 Quickstart Guide for new users
• 📖 API Reference for power users

Dive in & let us know what you think!
@pysport.org 🤩
May 30, 2025 at 11:24 AM
The paper submission deadline is approaching!
Submit your work to our 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩 𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐋 & 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 at @ecmlpkdd.org by 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟏𝟒!
📣 Excited to share that the Workshop on Machine Learning and Data Mining for Sports Analytics (MLSA) will be held again this September as part of @ecmlpkdd.org! w/ @hugoriosneto.bsky.social,
@azimmerdm.bsky.social and Maaike Van Roy

dtai.cs.kuleuven.be/events/MLSA25
MLSA 2025
Workshop on Machine Learning and Data Mining for Sports Analytics at ECML/PKDD 2025
dtai.cs.kuleuven.be
May 30, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
🚨The third and final blog post in our series on possession value models design decisions🔍: Can the features chosen to represent the game state inadvertently bias player ratings? w/
@probberechts.bsky.social @jessejdavis.bsky.social Lode Van Tente

dtai.cs.kuleuven.be/sports/blog/...
An experimental analysis of possession state value models: part 3
Conceptually, possession value approaches such as VAEP, PV, OBV, and g+ are all identical: they estimate the chances of scoring (and…
dtai.cs.kuleuven.be
April 24, 2025 at 9:26 AM
📣 Excited to share that the Workshop on Machine Learning and Data Mining for Sports Analytics (MLSA) will be held again this September as part of @ecmlpkdd.org! w/ @hugoriosneto.bsky.social,
@azimmerdm.bsky.social and Maaike Van Roy

dtai.cs.kuleuven.be/events/MLSA25
MLSA 2025
Workshop on Machine Learning and Data Mining for Sports Analytics at ECML/PKDD 2025
dtai.cs.kuleuven.be
April 10, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by Pieter Robberechts
The proceedings of the latest edition of our (@jessejdavis.bsky.social, @janvanhaaren.be, Ulf Brefeld) workshop are finally out: link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-86692-0
And the organization for this year's edition's already underway: dtai.cs.kuleuven.be/events/MLSA25/
Machine Learning and Data Mining for Sports Analytics
The MLSA 2024 proceedings focus on the application of machine learning and data mining techniques to the domain of sports.
link.springer.com
March 31, 2025 at 6:38 AM