How One Startup Is Democratizing Soccer

For decades, soccer has been a game of instinct, fluidity, and, more often than not, incomplete statistics. The beautiful game, as it is frequently called, has remained an enigma to data analysts who struggle to quantify what makes a player valuable. For Joshua Konowe, CEO of Impact Soccer, that gap presented a challenge and an opportunity.

Konowe, an entrepreneur with a track record of successful startups, had spent years watching his son play at the highest levels of youth soccer. As he observed matches from the sidelines, something struck him: most analytics focused only on the player with the ball. The game is so much more than that—it’s about space, positioning, movement, and influence. The problem was simple: how do you measure the impact of the 21 players who don’t have the ball?

That question became the genesis of Impact Soccer Inc., a company pioneering automated video analytics that unlocks insights previously hidden from traditional statistics.

From Satellite Imagery to Soccer Intelligence

Konowe’s background is not in sports analytics but machine learning, AI, and computer vision. His previous work at BlackSky, a publicly traded satellite imaging company, involved analyzing massive amounts of geospatial data to track patterns of life. The ability to extract meaningful insights from images—whether of battlefields or bustling city streets—was a skill set he realized could be applied to soccer.

“If we could track logistics and human influenced movements from space, why couldn’t we track the unseen dynamics of soccer players on the field where cameras are much closer to all the objects?” Konowe thought.

His curiosity led him to ask coaches, agents, and scouts the same question: How do you evaluate off-the-ball movement? The answers varied wildly, exposing an industry-wide knowledge gap. The realization was stark—nobody knew how to quantify off-the-ball influence.

Revolutionizing How We Measure Performance

Traditionally, soccer stats have been limited to what’s easy to track—goals, assists, passes, possession, tackles. But those metrics only tell part of the story.

Impact Soccer’s technology changes that. The platform automatically analyzes video footage using computer vision and AI-driven analytics, extracting deep insights into player movement, spatial awareness, and tactical decision-making.

• Camera-Agnostic Technology – Whether recorded on an iPhone, a GoPro, or a professional broadcast, Impact Soccer processes match footage with zero additional equipment.
• Automated Insights – The system eliminates hours of manual video review, offering instant match breakdowns.
• Off-the-Ball Intelligence – By analyzing positioning, defensive spacing, and passing lane creation, the software reveals which players are truly driving the game forward.

The goal? Empower coaches, clubs, and analysts with data that was previously invisible.

“The Moneyball of Soccer”

The comparison to Moneyball, the analytics revolution in baseball popularized by the Oakland A’s, is inevitable. But unlike baseball—where data collection is straightforward—soccer’s continuous play and fluid formations make statistical analysis exponentially more complex.

Konowe acknowledges this but sees it as an even bigger opportunity. While baseball’s analytics revolution started with finding undervalued players, soccer’s data revolution is about uncovering entirely new metrics.

“Teams that can understand off-the-ball intelligence will out-strategize and out-recruit their competition,” says Konowe. “This could be the difference between competing and fading into irrelevance for mid-tier clubs and academies.”

This insight led to a mission-driven approach. While elite clubs with massive budgets can afford traditional analytics, most clubs cannot. Impact Soccer seeks to level the playing field, offering a cost-effective solution that gives lower-budget teams the same cutting-edge tools as their wealthier counterparts.

A Global Market Waiting to Be Transformed

Soccer isn’t just a sport—it’s a $28 billion global industry with over 265 million active players worldwide. And yet, outside of the top professional leagues, most clubs rely on outdated scouting methods and manual video review.

Impact Soccer’s initial focus is on youth academies, amateur leagues, and mid-tier professional clubs, providing them with high-level analytics at an accessible price.

Beyond that, the future potential is massive:

• Broadcast Integration – With lower-tier leagues now streaming matches online, the potential for real-time in-game analytics is enormous.
• Predictive Insights – As more matches are analyzed, Impact Soccer could predict player trajectories, identifying future stars before they emerge.
• Scouting & Recruitment – Clubs could use the system to identify talent based on movement intelligence, not just raw goal contributions.

Leading with Trust & Ethics

Konowe emphasizes that trust and ethics are at the core of Impact Soccer’s platform. Unlike some analytics companies focusing on individual player tracking, Impact Soccer keeps data anonymous, ensuring that coaches get team-level insights without breaching player privacy.

This approach builds trust with clubs and players and eliminates bias. Instead of a coach’s subjective opinion, decisions are driven by cold, hard data. It also allows the company to help with youth soccer matches where individual player identification could be problematic for all the obvious protections one should consider.

Where Impact Soccer Goes Next

With five pilot customers already on board and a partnership with a significant Singapore-based soccer platform (300+ clubs), Impact Soccer is on the brink of substantial adoption.

Within five years, Konowe’s goal is to:

• Integrate AI-driven predictive analytics into live matches.
• Expand beyond youth and mid-tier clubs to broadcast and professional leagues.
• Become the go-to analytics platform for soccer organizations worldwide.

At its core, Impact Soccer’s mission remains simple: Make advanced analytics available to every club, coach, and player, regardless of their budget.

“If we can do that,” says Konowe, “then we’ll have truly changed the game.”

Want to See Impact Soccer in Action?

Impact Soccer is offering free match analysis for select early partners.

If you’re a club, coach, or recruiter—reach out to learn more.