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Sports Performance Analyst
(Performance Analyst, Match Analyst, Video Analyst, Sport Data Analyst)
Sport & Fitness
Salary
€28,000 - €65,000/yr
Level
Professional
Outlook
Growing
Sector
Sport & Fitness
What does a Sports Performance Analyst do?
As a Sports Performance Analyst, you collect, process and interpret data to help coaches and athletes improve their competitive performance. Your daily work involves coding match footage, analysing GPS tracking outputs, compiling statistical reports and presenting findings to coaching staff and players. You work closely with strength and conditioning coaches, physiotherapists, team managers and individual athletes across county GAA squads, soccer academies, rugby provinces or national governing bodies. Attention to detail is critical, as the insights you produce directly shape training programmes, tactical decisions and opposition scouting.
A Day in the Life
Listen: a day as a Sports Performance Analyst
Your alarm goes off at 6.45 a.m. The county senior football squad had a challenge match last evening, and the raw footage from two fixed cameras and a drone feed is already sitting in a shared folder on the team's server. You make a quick coffee and check your messages before driving to the county board facilities on the edge of town, arriving just before 8.00 a.m. You spend the first two hours in a small analysis suite — a room with a large monitor, a second laptop and noise-cancelling headphones — working through the footage in Hudl, the video-coding platform the squad uses. You tag every possession, turnover, kickout outcome and defensive press in real time, building a database of events that can be filtered later. It is repetitive and demands total concentration. A single mis-tagged possession skews the statistics for the whole half.
Videos about Sports Performance Analyst
Dan Sdao - Performance Improvement Analyst
icould career stories
Some videos were filmed in the UK. The work itself is the same, but the exams, qualifications and pay they mention are British — we include them so you get a feel for the job.
Required Education
A Level 8 Honours Bachelor degree is the typical entry point, with relevant programmes in Sports Science, Sport and Exercise Science, or Performance Analysis available at institutions such as UL, DCU, UCC, IT Carlow (now SETU) and TU Dublin. Leaving Certificate subjects that strengthen your application include Physical Education, Mathematics, Biology and Geography, as these build analytical and scientific foundations. Some graduates pursue a Level 9 postgraduate diploma or master's degree in Performance Analysis or High Performance Sport to specialise further and improve competitiveness for roles with national bodies or professional clubs. There is no statutory registration body for this role in Ireland, but membership of professional networks such as the International Society of Performance Analysis of Sport (ISPAS) is valued. A small number of candidates enter via Level 7 Sport Science degrees and supplement these with practical experience through internships with county boards or sports academies.
Required Skills
Career Perspective
Many analysts begin their careers through unpaid or part-time roles with GAA county boards, university sports departments or League of Ireland clubs while completing their degree. From there, a first paid position as a junior or assistant performance analyst with an academy or inter-county setup is a common next step. With experience, you may progress to lead analyst roles within a provincial rugby structure, FAI high-performance pathway or Sport Ireland-funded programme. Senior analysts with postgraduate qualifications and a strong track record can move into head of performance analysis positions or transition into coaching, sports science management or talent identification roles.
AI Impact on the job
Artificial intelligence is significantly reshaping sports performance analysis, with automated video tagging, computer vision tracking and machine-learning models increasingly able to perform tasks that once required manual coding. This shifts the analyst's role away from time-consuming data capture toward higher-order interpretation, contextualisation and communication of insights. Analysts who develop skills in working with AI-assisted platforms and who can critically evaluate algorithmically generated outputs will be best positioned as the technology matures. Rather than replacing analysts, AI is likely to expand the volume and complexity of data available, making the human capacity to translate findings into coaching action more valuable than ever.
Career Ladder
→ Sports Performance Analyst (Current role)
Related Studies
Employers in Ireland
Organisations in Ireland that employ people in this occupation.
Dublin 4, Co. Dublin
Analyse match footage and GPS data for professional rugby squad
Limerick / Cork
Provide performance data insights to coaching and conditioning staff
Abbotstown, Co. Dublin
Support national and underage soccer squads with video and data analysis
Croke Park, Dublin / Nationwide
Deliver performance analysis services across inter-county GAA programmes
Abbotstown, Co. Dublin
Analyse elite athlete performance data across multiple Olympic sports
Tallaght, Co. Dublin
Code match footage and compile statistics for League of Ireland squad
Belfast, Co. Antrim
Interpret GPS tracking and video data for professional rugby environment
Parnell Park, Dublin
Provide statistical analysis and match coding for county football panels
Galway
Compile opposition and own-team performance reports for coaching staff
Abbotstown, Co. Dublin
Analyse biomechanical and competition data to enhance elite athlete performance
Phibsborough, Dublin
Deliver video analysis and match statistics for League of Ireland coaching staff
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