Explore NHL’s journey with SAP
The National Hockey League (NHL) is focused on expanding and enhancing the game of hockey. It also aspires to reduce the League’s impact on the planet to ensure hockey thrives for generations to come. SAP technology helps the NHL move forward in new and exciting ways.
> 100
million
annual visits by fans to NHL.com/stats.
30
gigabytes
of puck and player tracking data instantly analyzed per game.
32
clubs
can access environmental sustainability reporting across the League.
The Challenge
Unlocking the power of data
Hockey is a fast-moving sport that generates a lot of data – both on and off the ice. Collecting, analyzing, and acting on that data helps the NHL better serve its teams, engage with fans, and advance its business and sustainability goals.
Real-time game data helps teams, coaches, and players improve performance on the ice. Historical and current game stats provide passionate hockey fans with a fun and educational digital experience. Operations and carbon impact data collected from its clubs and arenas help the NHL define new environmental standards and share key learnings across the League.
The Solution
Teaming up to support innovation on and off the ice
Enhancing the Game
In-game tracking technology captures the movements of the puck and players, every second of every game. Massive amounts of high-speed game data are processed in the SAP HANA Cloud database in milliseconds – and is pushed to other apps used by coaches, players, and fans to enhance their experiences.
During games, coaches and players use the SAP-NHL Coaching Insights mobile app to quickly see face-off wins per zone, player speeds, player time on ice, and more. This type of real-time game data was unattainable before and helps teams make tactical in-game adjustments on the fly.
Building on this powerful foundation, SAP also helps empower the NHL's strategic operations off the ice with the SAP-NHL Front Office App for iPad. This innovative app gives NHL general managers and hockey operations departments a unified view of critical data. The app centralizes information from multiple NHL sources, making it easier to manage roster planning, salary cap, and player contracts. Organized into League, Team, and Player views, the app provides comprehensive insights, enabling faster, more informed decisions that drive team performance.
Satisfying Fans
Game data also flows to the NHL.com/stats page, which is the go-to source for hockey analytics. The site runs on SAP HANA Cloud and combines real-time data with more than 100 years of historical stats. Last season, over 100 million data-hungry fans engaged with the site. Intuitive dashboards and filters make it easier for them to analyze the performance of their favorite teams and players, as well as legends from the past.
David Lehanski
EVP, Business Development and Innovation, NHL
Going Green
As a leader in the sports world, the NHL aspires to reduce its environmental impact on the planet. In 2010, the League launched its NHL Green initiative and became the first sports league in North America to voluntarily release two sustainability reports on its carbon footprint.
With the help of SAP, the NHL recently used SAP Business Technology Platform to create NHL Venue Metrics, an end-to-end, cloud-based platform designed to revolutionize how the League collects, analyzes, and reports on operations data across its clubs and arenas. The data will be processed through SAP HANA Cloud and visualized with the SAP Analytics Cloud solution. The insights gained will enable the NHL to define and embed sustainability best practices into its business operations and reduce its ecological impact wherever possible.
Staying Ready for What’s Next
Beyond enhancing the game and front-office operations, SAP and the NHL continue to collaborate on optimizing the League's core business processes, ensuring it is future-ready. As part of its commitment to innovation and operational excellence, the NHL recently selected SAP Cloud ERP and SAP SuccessFactors solutions. These strategic adoptions will help the League enhance its workforce management and streamline financial operations, further solidifying SAP's role as a comprehensive technology partner for the NHL's entire enterprise.
SAP helps the NHL run better
Key business outcomes and benefits
- Transformed the NHL's statistics platform to establish NHL.com/stats as the definitive destination for hockey analytics, engaging more than 100 million fans
- Teams used the the SAP-NHL Coaching Insights mobile app an average of 22 to 23 minutes per game during the 2021-22 season
- Had the app featured 250+ times by broadcast partners
- Improved reporting and insights to embed sustainability into business operations and reduce environmental impact
- Empowered general managers and hockey operations departments across all 32 Clubs with centralized data for more efficient, accurate, and real-time decision-making on rosters, salary cap, and contracts
Featured solutions and services
- SAP Business Technology Platform connects processes, data, and experiences to achieve continued business innovation through a unified, business-centric platform, including:
SAP HANA Cloud is a fully managed in-memory cloud database that integrates data from across the enterprise, enabling faster decisions based on live data; and
SAP Analytics Cloud combines business intelligence, augmented analytics, predictive analytics, and enterprise planning into one cloud environment.
- SAP SuccessFactors offers individualized experiences and strategic workforce planning capabilities that empower employees to reach their full potential
- SAP Cloud ERP provides anytime, anywhere access to mission-critical business processes, offering robust scalability and continuous innovation capabilities to support ongoing business transformation
About the NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL), founded in 1917, is the second oldest of the four major professional sports leagues in North America. Today, the NHL consists of 32 member clubs, each reflecting the League’s international makeup, with players from more than 20 countries represented on team rosters.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Sports and entertainment | New York, New York | 1,001 - 5,000 employees |
About the NHLPA
The National Hockey League Players’ Association, established in 1967, is a labor organization whose members are the players in the National Hockey League. The NHLPA works on behalf of the players in varied disciplines such as labor relations, product licensing, marketing, international hockey, and community relations, all in furtherance of its efforts to promote its members and the game of hockey.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Sports and entertainment | Toronto, Ontario | 70 employees and 800+ members (players) |
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