Sports data provider Stats Perform has hired brothers Steve and Peter Hirdt, long regarded as innovators in US sports broadcast research and content, to senior roles.
The Hirdt brothers join the newly-merged company from the Elias Sports Bureau, where they helped pioneer the use of statistics across sports media, particularly on TV.
In the new roles with Stats Perform, Steve Hirdt will be senior director of operations and research, while Peter Hirdt will be senior director of content and broadcast service.
“If you talk to anyone across the sports broadcast industry, Steve and Peter’s names come up as two of the most influential minds for modern sports statistics and media coverage,” said Carl Mergele, Stats Perform chief executive. “Over the past four decades, they instilled standards and practices that led the sports broadcast industry to embrace the use of data to enhance storytelling.
“Now they join Stats Perform at a pivotal moment as well use industry-leading AI and our unmatched historical database to unlock a new level of sports insights,” Mergele said.
In addition to spending decades as an industry expert on sports statistics and a frequent contributors to documentaries and film projects, Steve Hirdt has also been part of the Hall of Fame selection process. Most recently, he was part of the institution’s Modern Era Committee that on December 8 elected the late former MLB Players Association executive director Marvin Miller and former catcher Ted Simmons to the Hall of Fame.
“With recent advancements in AI, Stats Perform is at the forefront of ushering in new capabilities for data and statistics in sports,” Steve Hirdt said. “We look forward to joining the team to create the new wave of sports broadcast.”