Weekly Roundup 02.16.2025

Welcome everyone to another feast of sporting visualisations! The sporting headline that caught my attention this week was the two-month doping ban for tennis' current men's world number one, Jannik Sinner. Clearly, it's a complex topic and to assign blame to an individual athlete is usually highly debatable and contentious. However, it also feels a little convenient that the ban imposed will not preclude Sinner from competing at the next grand slam—the French Open, in May. The opinion certainly seems to be divided but whatever the rights and wrongs of the case—and punishment conveyed—it hasn't put tennis in the greatest of lights.

Onto the round-up and let's wrap things up, Super Bowl-related, with these next few fantastic stories. First up, if you like me, aren't particularly a fan of the NFL, but are also intrigued about the scoring patterns then I'd highly encourage checking out the recent work from Mo Wootten. The best thing I can say about Mo's design is that even for a complete NFL novice I was able to pick up the flow of the game, understand the general scoring opportunities and begin to appreciate the subtiles of the sport. That's the true power of an effective communication of data. In this version, Mo has visualised the flow of the Super Bowl game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.

However, was the 59th version of this star-studded event an exciting spectacle? Well, Lev Akabas suggests not. Indeed, he headlines with it being the 2nd worst Super Bowl of the 21st Century. Quite some statement but Lev backs it up with this amazing small panel highlighting the win probability changes across the matches. From this view, it certainly does appear the Eagles had the win in the bag from quite an early stage.

Finally, and also from Lev a stat that can only be written in the pantheons of sport. Despite the achievements of the New Englands patriots, with legend Tom Brady pulling the strings, just 3 points were scored in the opening quarter. That's across 9 Super Bowls. Crazy!

Same egg-shaped ball, a different continent and actually, a different sport entirely now as we venture into the world of Rugby Union. The Europen Six Nations is hotting up after the first couple of rounds but we can safely say that it won't be Wales lifting the cup this year. In this view by Chris Westlake, he documents the rise and fall of Wales through the lens of their recently departed head coach Warren Gaitlin. Quite where it all went wrong, I'm not sure but Chris brilliantly highlights the dominance and subsequent demise of this great rugby nation. Try awarded, Chris!

We've already seen one brilliant match momentum design this week so we are a little spoilt to see another cross our paths. In this view by Rob Taylor, he tracks the scoring of the recent England vs. France game with England coming out on top in the last few moments. An amazing match made even more incredible by the relatively slow start with no points being scored, by either team, in the first 30 minutes or so.

We swiftly transition now to football and a series of squad review templates by Zak Saucede. I'll share the first below—covering a design for Liverpool—but do check out his subsequent posts. I can imagine this style on a manager's notice board as they discuss the development of young players. Great job, Zak.

We have a wonderful example of scrollytelling next with Opta Analysts review of set pieces in the English Premier League. Set pieces certainly are a crucial aspect of the game and it's right that significant investment has been made in them with specialised coaches. But, let's get it right, they've always been a critical component of a team's success or otherwise. Are teams actually any better or worse than in previous generations now we have access to this wealth of data. Not for me to answer but an interesting talking point for sure!

For F1 fans, the beginning of the 2025 World Championship can't come soon enough. In this brilliant view, Jacob Rothemund whets our appetites by previewing each of the tracks that comprise the F1 travelling circus this year. Alongside the eye-catching track overlays, there are also additional interesting elements built-in including track length and number of corners to help familiarise yourself with the circuits. Great job, Jacob!

And we complete our round-up this week by heading back to the States and the world of BasketBall. Shangruff Raina looks at the career of NBA legend Luka Donic via this lovely-looking radial view. There's some excellent interactivity on show here, too. I encourage you all to check it out.

That's all for this week. Thanks as always to everyone who's taken the time to craft these fantastic vizzes and share them with the community. Until next week have a great few days.

Simon & the #sportsvizsunday team