Around the world, thousands of annotators track the movements in every single World Cup game
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A ball glides into a net. A player tackles another. A referee hands out a red card.
Hundreds of important moments take place in every World Cup match, but who’s keeping track? The answer is, in part, human data annotation workers, spread out as far as the Philippines, Cambodia and Brazil – capturing up to 3,000 actions per match.
They form part of the global sports analytics market, valued at around $5.7billion in 2025. The market – mostly headquartered in Europe and North America – is projected to grow significantly across the next decade, driven by big data, real-time performance tracking and AI.
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Human data annotation workers are often football players themselves, or individuals with extensive knowledge of the game, and are based in cities including Ternopil, Chennai, Cairo and Manila. Annotators can spend three to four hours on a single game, transforming events such as passes and tackles into data that can then be used by broadcasters and betting companies in various ways.
Demand for data workers is soaring as wearable technology for football players – like smart vests – increases, and as the betting industry booms, where precise data is needed.
According to an anonymous data annotation worker, data work is a particularly popular side job among many football league players in the Philippines seeking additional income. During major tournaments, ‘the workload is heavier because of higher demand for fast data from teams, analysts, and the media’, the worker said.
But it isn’t just human workers who make data analysis happen. A complex web of technologies, like computer vision and AI modelling, helps create a clearer, more accurate picture of a game. Yet, importantly, these technologies still rely on the human eye: researchers note that key events such as shots, fouls and passes are often manually annotated by humans as automated detection systems continue to struggle with accuracy in these areas.
‘The football we watch runs on [data workers’] work as much as on the players. None of it would exist without the workforce behind it,’ said assistant professor of media studies at the University of Toronto, Rafael Grohmann.
In addition to human workers, the latest World Cup has deployed an array of technologies during matches to ensure data can be collected accurately. These include enhanced viewing angles from body cameras worn by referees to balls, which can sample data 500 times per second to measure movement.
For future World Cup tournaments, researchers are exploring how to track players and automatically detect events like fouls and passes using video footage, rather than additional specialised camera technology.
In all, beyond the 90-minute matches of the World Cup lies a complex array of technologies and workers ensuring that game data is captured and distributed in real time to audiences around the world.
