Jake's Road Report is Gemini Sports founder Jake Schuster’s weekly update from professional football's frontlines. He travels globally, meeting club executives to share candid insights on AI's role in football. These raw, actionable thoughts are delivered weekly, with meeting details kept confidential and specific intel omitted.

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Data people at clubs do truly incredible work. We have fantastic relationships with analytics departments at our partner clubs, and I've seen firsthand the brilliant insights they generate.

But we also encounter people in the field who “gatekeep” knowledge. They position themselves as the sole bridge between raw data and the sporting director, creating dependencies rather than enabling decisions. They resist external tools not because those tools don't work, but because collaboration threatens their perceived indispensability.

This is the wrong approach—and it's becoming a competitive liability.

In today's tech wave, collaboration wins. The false choice between "build vs. buy" is exactly that: false. The best clubs do both. They develop proprietary metrics and custom reports that reflect their unique football philosophy while also engaging with technology partners who elevate their processes to the next level.

Amazing analytics people show their worth through their work, not through gatekeeping knowledge or isolating workflows. They make their organizations smarter by making insights accessible, not by hoarding them. They understand that their value lies in interpretation, not information control.

The best teams know this. Does yours?