WANDERERS have brought sports data advisory firm Ludonautics on board in a move they hope can open more doors in recruitment, at home and abroad, in the future.

The newly-launched company has been issued B class shares by Bolton’s owners, Football Ventures (Whites) Limited, and will help supplement the data-driven approach already taken by the club.

But who are they? And what should Wanderers fans expect?

WHAT IS LUDONAUTICS?

According to the company’s website: “Ludonautics is a sports advisory business dedicated to helping sporting organisations improve their decision-making capabilities through access to insightful statistical analysis.”

Ludonautics was launched in late 2023 with an aim to assisting ownership groups and sporting organisations implement a data-driven approach to player recruitment and performance analysis.

The company claims to be “uniquely placed” to offer this sort of advice because of their staff expertise, which includes two of the people who were instrumental in Liverpool’s success under Jurgen Klopp.

WHO IS IAN GRAHAM?

Wales-born Cambridge physics graduate Graham is the owner of Ludonautics and a former director of research at Liverpool regarded as one of the leading operators in the field of football data analytics.

Alongside Michael Edwards at Anfield, he played a major part in establishing the club as Premier League and European champions.

Before arriving at Liverpool in 2012 he worked for Decision Technology, who along with establishing the Castrol Index – an early player ratings system which ranked players according to various metrics – also worked for Tottenham Hotspur on a consultancy basis after being brought to the club by director of football, Damien Commoli.

At Tottenham he established a relationship with Michael Edwards, who had previous worked as Harry Redknapp’s head of video analysis at Portsmouth, creating one of the first data science departments in football in what was regarded as groundbreaking work at the time.

Commoli left for Liverpool in 2010, taking Edwards with him as sporting director. After attempts were made to bring Decision Technology to Anfield, Graham would eventually link up with Edwards once again a couple of years later after striking out alone.

Graham and Edwards left Liverpool in late 2022 and had turned down several offers to return to work for clubs around the Premier League and Europe, preferring to act in a consultancy basis.

Edwards is a non-executive director of Ludomautics.

WHAT IS LUDONAUTICS’ ARRANGEMENT WITH WANDERERS?

Ludonautics have been offered class B shares – i.e. not shares that have voting rights – to help improve Wanderers’ recruitment, specifically overseas, as they look to push further up the football pyramid.

The company plan to expand their portfolio beyond football and it has been reported that they are already working with at least one other top-level club.

Should Wanderers be sold in the future, Ludonautics would be paid pro rata to the value of shares they have been issued in Football Ventures (Whites) Ltd. It is hoped that their input can help the work already being done by the club’s recruitment department.

WHAT CAN WANDERERS FANS EXPECT NOW?

In one sense, the club won’t change the way they current operate in the transfer market. Wanderers have embraced data in their recruitment and player analysis throughout Ian Evatt’s time as manager, and Chris Markham’s arrival as technical performance director at the start of 2021 has been a pivotal appointment.

With Ludonautics on board, however, the club should have access to more resources and expertise that they would not have had solely in-house.

The club is aiming for automatic promotion to the Championship and has expressed an interest in looking abroad for signings who can provide value for money and fit the technical requirements of the club’s style of play. Markets in the Netherlands and Belgium have already been scouted with one eye on the summer.

It seems ambitious to think that things will change in the current transfer window – and when working at Liverpool, Graham is thought to have asked for six months to set up the necessary structures he needed to operate.

In this case, Ludonautics is not starting from scratch, nor is the company tied in to one specific club. How quickly things change may depend on how readily Wanderers want to draw on their new pool of expertise.