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This is not an advertising idea.
Over a year before the 2010 FIFA World Cup, ESPN wanted to prove to fans that they were serious about soccer. So we took on the one thing we know ALL soccer fans mistrust: the FIFA World Rankings. They're old and outdated and only count international results. And we knew, from a fan's POV, there's more to it than that. So we developed the Soccer Power Index (SPi) - the world’s first ranking system that evaluates teams based on how the players on the team perform overall - for club and country. Giving fans a real-time reflection of how their team is looking based on how their players are performing.
It's more of an editorial idea than an advertising idea, which is why ESPN's editorial team loved it, and still uses it today. Well, that and we recruited statistician genius Nate Silver (fivethirtyeight.com, Baseball Prospectus), to write the algorithm, make it work and ultimately bring the idea to life.