Sportlogiq Opens New AI Lab in Vancouver

Sportlogiq is proud to announce the opening of its new AI Lab in Vancouver, BC

As part of our commitment to invest in the Canadian AI ecosystem, Sportlogiq has expanded its network of research centers, SLiQ Labs, to the west coast. The new lab will be focused on machine learning research for descriptive and predictive analytics, with a focus on sports as its first application. The SLiQ Labs innovation team is headquartered in Sportlogiq’s Montreal office and opened its first AI Lab in Kitchener-Waterloo in 2018. 

Professor Oliver Schulte, an internationally recognized expert in machine learning for sports data modelling from Simon Fraser University’s school of computing science, is leading the lab’s research efforts. He’s joined by Mani Ranjbar, a seasoned industrial machine learning researcher from the quantum computing world, who is leading the applied research team at the lab. 

“Sportlogiq has the best data in sports, and we want to leverage that to build the best predictive systems in the industry. We want to transform the sports betting industry. To achieve this we’re working on win probabilities, player rankings, and data science that will allow betting companies to strengthen their lines and offer more bets to their clients.” -Oliver Schulte, Director of Predictive Analytics Research 

Sportlogiq has a longstanding relationship with Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia dating back to 2015, and research collaborations with Professors Greg Mori, Oliver Schulte, and Jim Little. Additionally, the team is planning a collaborative research project with Leonid Sigal on natural language and vision. 

Despite being one of the most fertile grounds for AI research, Vancouver hasn’t been given the same amount of attention or investment in AI compared to Quebec and Ontario. But that’s already changing with the thirty-third edition of NeurIPS taking place there this year. 

Sportlogiq is hoping to help drive that change by formalizing our BC presence, investing massively in machine learning research, and collaborating with the local  vibrant AI community. We aim to further advance AI for descriptive and predictive modelling, starting with applications in sports data – used for content creation in media, performance evaluations for professional sports teams, and sports betting. We’re also increasing our investment on theoretical and applied machine learning research in other domains beyond sport, benefiting the Canadian economy in multiple areas. 

“We’re proud to be at the center of BC’s thriving AI and academic ecosystem in an official capacity. Our team is fortunate to be working with some of the top researchers in the world to ensure that our AI technology remains ahead of the curve. We’re excited to see what we can achieve together.”  -Mehrsan Javan, Sportlogiq co-founder & CTO

The SLiQ Labs research team looks forward to meeting with other researchers at NeurIPS on December 8th through the 14th. Oliver Schulte will be moderating a panel discussion on Explainable Reinforcement Learning on December 8th at 1:45pm, so don’t miss it.