Framesports is a UK-based startup revolutionizing sports analytics, starting with rugby. Founded by Ori Marash and Lachlan McGrigor, both alumni of the University of Bath, the company was born out of a need to streamline the labor-intensive process of analyzing Rugby matches. The idea took off when the founders realized the potential to automate the manual task of coding rugby matches, allowing professional and amateur teams to analyze performance efficiently and accurately.
Traditionally, Rugby teams analyze their performance by manually recording and coding every event during a match, a process that is not only time-consuming but also prone to human error. The manual nature of this task often results in unreliable data, especially when coded during late hours or by overworked staff. Additionally, the cost and complexity of setting up infrastructure to automate this process were significant barriers for Framesports, an early-stage startup with limited resources.
Framesports needed a solution that could reliably handle the heavy computational demands of analyzing up to 100,000 frames from an 80-minute rugby match. After experimenting with various cloud providers, Framesports chose Ori's Serverless Kubernetes for its simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and scalability.
Leveraging the simplicity and scalability of Serverless Kubernetes
Marash stresses on the need for simplicity in infrastructure, “As an early-stage startup, we don’t have the luxury of a DevOps team. So, we need our models to run fast and reliably, and we need a simple solution that can be managed with ease.”
Ori Serverless Kubernetes enabled Framesports to get their models going in a day, with just a few configurations. Despite having no prior experience with Kubernetes, the Framesports team found the setup process straightforward, with minimal need for complex configurations. “I was surprised by how easy it was to set everything up, all I had to upload was a Kubernetes manifest, and it worked straight out of the box”
Framesports’ workflow is highly variable, consisting of spikes of high demand for GPU resources. “We have a choppy workflow, when there are matches, we have to analyze 100,000 frames all of a sudden. It doesn’t make sense to have a bunch of GPUs lying unused when there are no games”, Marash added.
Ori’s solution enabled Framesports to scale their GPU usage up and down automatically, ensuring they only paid for the GPU Compute when they needed it.
Using Ori’s Serverless Kubernetes, Framesports successfully automated their match analysis process, significantly reducing the time required to process match footage.
Pricing that enables predictability in operations
As an early-stage startup with a choppy demand pattern, Framesports realized that GPU virtual machines weren’t the best fit for their workloads financially. The ability to scale dynamically was a crucial factor in choosing Ori Serverless Kubernetes for their infrastructure needs.
One of the standout aspects about the Ori experience was Ori’s transparent, per-minute billing. This allowed them to monitor and control costs effectively, a crucial factor for a startup operating on a tight budget. By leveraging Ori’s pay-per-minute GPU billing, Framesports avoided the excessive costs associated with traditional virtual machines or over-provisioned cloud resources.
“The best thing about Ori is the transparent, per-minute billing. I love that I can accurately see how much I'm paying for compute. No other GPU cloud provider has this level of pricing transparency which is very helpful, especially when scaling workloads up or down”
Leveling up sports with the help of data
With the ability to effortlessly scale their infrastructure, Framesports is well-positioned to expand into other sports and markets. As Framesports grows the flexibility and reliability of Ori’s platform means their infrastructure can grow with them without requiring significant additional resources. The Ori partnership has enabled Framesports to automate their core processes, reduce costs, and set the stage for future growth. Framesports envisions data in sports to be accessible to every team, professional or amateur, augmenting player abilities and elevating sport as a whole.
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