Signify data insights

The International Tennis Federation (ITF), Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and United States Tennis Association (USTA) have unveiled the findings of a coordinated approach to combat online abuse against players, officials, and the wider tennis family - powered by Threat Matrix.

This update looks in detail at our analysis of four key swing states in the run up to the US Election, and how our technology pinpointed the issues that mattered to voters, what local media was talking about, and how well each campaign stuck to the issues that voters cared about.

Signify’s 2024 US Election data was featured on ITV’s flagship political programme “Peston”, detailing what voters really think about the issues and the candidates ahead of polling day.

Joe Sayers, Senior Insights Lead at Manchester United FC, has joined Signify Group’s growing sports division as Group Sports Insights Director. Joe will lead the growth of Signify’s Fan Insight offering utilising AI and massive data sets to help sports clubs, leagues, brands, event owners and athletes to understand their fans on a deeper level.

In a bid to protect sport from the increasing threat of online abuse connected to sports betting, Signify Group and EPIC Global Solutions are joining forces to provide more comprehensive protection for athletes, teams, and sports organisations. 

We are proud to announce that we have been supporting broadcaster Eni Aluko in her campaign against online abuse. Signify’s Threat Matrix social media protection service has been supporting Eni in detecting, reporting, and investigating abusive and threatening social media content targeting her directly.

No-one really cares about the UK General Election. Signify’s ShareScore technology tells you what people really care about. In this insight study, we have looked at whether voters care about the UK General Election (Spoiler: Not really), as we run a deep dive into which parties and leaders drove the highest levels of public interest.

Following work at the Rugby World Cup 2023, Signify welcomed the prosecution of an individual who sent abusive messages on social media targeting a Rugby World Cup 2023 match official and members of his family. The Television Match Official (TMO) and his wife received threatening and abusive messages via Facebook during the major event in France last year.

Women’s sport is thriving. With stadium sell-outs, attendance records repeatedly being broken, and 46.7 million fans watching women’s sport in 2023 – the visibility of women’s sport has never been higher. But Online Abuse is on a parralel track - how do we deal with that? Signify’s Georgia Relf explores the issue on International Women’s Day 2024

The ITF, WTA, AELTC and USTA have announced the launch of a Threat Matrix powered proactive monitoring initiative to protect athletes from online abuse and threats. Tennis players are subject to significant levels of social media abuse and other inappropriate online contact, which poses risks to preparation, performance and mental health. The service will begin on 1 January 2024.

The NCAA has announced an innovative engagement with Signify Group to provide its Threat Matrix artificial intelligence service to support the Association in studying and responding to online abuse and threats directed at NCAA Championship participants including student-athletes, coaches, officials and committee members.

Loughborough University and Signify Group have announced a strategic partnership that will see them collaborate on academic research and innovative data studies to explore and better understand the phenomenon of online abuse in sport.

Signify Group partnered with German Insurance provider ARAG to conduct a first-of-its-kind initiative, using AI to analyse online toxicity in Esports.  Working with over 5.5m comments on streams and posts from 250 e-sports talents over a 3 month period the study illuminates the true picture of online abuse in Esports.

World Rugby has selected Signify Group and our AI-driven Threat Matrix service to put an online protective shield around all tournament match officials, players and coaches at the Rugby World Cup 2023.

Signify have launched a new Sports Division, appointing Jake Marsh as Head of Signify Sport. The news reflects the huge success Signify has experienced over the last two years, in particular around its AI-driven service, Threat Matrix, which helps sports leagues, international federations, clubs and major events protect athletes and officials from online abuse.

Signify celebrates the UN International Day for Countering Hate Speech by reflecting on FIFA’s recent work at FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ - where their Social Media Protection Service proactively protected players, officials and fans from online abuse at scale.

Arsenal Football Club have announced the banning of 18 fans identified by Signify's Threat Matrix service. As part of an ongoing drive by the club to tackle online abuse and discrimination, Threat Matrix has been activated by the club, who have also requested a three year extension to the service.

Former England international and Man Utd captain Rio Ferdinand has released a ground-breaking documentary series examining racism, homophobia and mental health issues in football. The documentary - Tipping Point - features powerful research from Signify’s Threat Matrix team as part of a year-long analysis of online racist targeting of professional footballers..

FIFA’s report exploring the issues around Online Abuse is one of many Signify have produced for world governing bodies and sports organisations. What can sports clubs learn and what action can they take? This article looks at the issues highlighted by these studies and the actions Signify’s work is facilitating across world sport.

FIFPRO, NBPA and WNBPA have teamed up with Signify to publish a unique study covering online abuse targeting stars of world football and basketball. This first-of-its-kind study reveals the disturbing levels of online abuse targeting the stars of global football and basketball. The study covers 160 players across 15 leagues in the world’s two most popular team sports.