Key Facts:
• @January 31st, 2026, Heart of Midlothian sit top of the SPL.
• The club entered into a partnership with Jamestown Analytics in November 2024.
• Hearts finished seventh in the 2024-2025 season.
• Jamestown Analytics also help Brighton and Hove Albion in the English Premier League, Com in Italy; Royal Union Saint- Gilloise in Belgium; and IK Start in Norway.
• Only USG have won their respective Leagues. After 90 years USG won the 2025 Belgium League Title.
• New Sporting Director Graeme Jones took up post on November 25th, 2024.
• Jamestown Analytics and Brighton owner Tony Bloom reportedly, initially invested £10 million into Hearts in return for a 29% stake in the club.
• The Foundation of Hearts returned a vote of 70% in favour of the partnership.
• Bloom purchased non-voting rights shares which would not impact upon the 75.1% voting rights held by the Foundation of Hearts.
• The club has a formal relationship with Jamestown for recruitment purposes.
The Question
1. With Heart of Midlothian sitting top of the Scottish Premier League for significant periods during 2025 -2026 the question is often asked will the data analytics partnership with Jamestown Analytics be the reason for Hearts winning the league, if in fact they manage to do this?
The Answer
2. The simple answer to the question is no with the premise being that data analytics information wins leagues. Data analytics maybe an enabler or an ingredient in the mix of a title winning club but rarely if at all is it the sole or most important ingredient in the mix?
3. If Hearts do win the league Jamestown is more likely to be part of the foundation but not the one factor. Data analytics does not win leagues alone, but you increasingly need it in the portfolio. No team in the Big Five Leagues has won the league because of data analytics alone.
4. The recruitment aspect of data analytics gets headlines, but clubs use it for a variety of reasons including:
• player recruitment and scouting.
• tactics and game strategy.
• fan experience and media.
• injury prevention & fitness monitoring.
• clubs use of on-field data analytics more than they use off-field data analytics (Media analysis for example).
5. Clubs can scout thousands of players worldwide. It reduces risk in player trading and increases the probability of finding the type of player a club is looking for. Smaller clubs can be better informed about their player and manager recruitment by having a relationship with a data analytics company.
6. The data analytics service provided by Jamestown Analytics has helped Hearts modernise, have a more systematic recruitment process, further professionalise, be data informed, helped Hearts and be more efficient and competitive, but is it the factor that helps Hearts win the league, if they do win the SPL- No.
7. Claudio Braga, Alexandros Kyziridis and Rogers Mato who have come to Hearts all as Jamestown Analytics data informed signings. Mato has arrived having scored 12 goals in 13 games from North Macedonia’s top tier in the first half of the season
8. In a business sense the data analytics information has helped to identify perhaps under-valued players, who have the attributes for what the club wants and can be developed and sold on for profit. Scoring well and being affordable would potentially be an ask of the Jamestown Analytics data service.
9. In a recent interview Derek McInnes, the manager of Hearts said” it begins with him asking for a profile of a player, then the scouting services get to work informed by Jamestown data, recommendations are brought to the club, the manager and staff watch the clips extensively before deciding on which players to pursue”.
10. The interview suggests that data analytics is helpful but not a magic silver bullet to winning the league. You still need to know what questions to ask, you still need to have a competitive budget, you still need a football identity or style. Data analytics’ alone is not the key factor – it is an enabler, but you need other things. It helps you to outthink richer clubs, but you need other things.
11. Hearts are also different from Brighton – smaller budgets, lower resale ceilings, less margin for error, fewer transfer windows. – When Leicester won the league in 2015-16 data analytics was involved; when Klopp build his team at Liverpool data analytics was involved; – it found Klopp the right payers. What Jamestown Analytics offer Hearts is a service tailored to the needs of the club – it is not a one size fits all. There are also Add Ons in terms of investment into the Club [See Above].
Conclusion
12. If Hearts do win the league Jamestown is more likely to be part of the foundation but not the one factor – Analytics does not win leagues alone, but you increasingly need it in the portfolio.
