We teamed up with Fleishmanhillard to document the fascinating and inspiring story of Irish startup EquiRatings and their partnership with SAP.
EquiRatings was co-founded by Eventing rider, Sam Watson and his university friend, Diarmuid Byrne. Inspiration from the startup came from Sam’s frustration at being unable to know, factually, where he ranked in his own sport.
The video production tells the story of how Sam and Diarmuid developed EquiRatings. How they analysed the complex sport of Eventing, with its many variables and moving parts… Horses, riders and three phases of competition: Dressage, Cross Country and Show Jumping and then the variables within that… Speed, jumping accuracy etc.
Ranking had always been a matter of gut instinct… But built on SAP technology and using simulation and predictive scenarios, EquiRating brought statistics and robust data analysis to the table.
And then there’s the human story… Sam describes how he was about to walk away from Eventing, and then how the invaluable insights he gained from EquiRatings gave him new impetus and direction. EquiRatings insights helped Sam understand how he himself ranked in various areas of the sport, and then by focusing his efforts on those areas where he ranked lowest, to improve his performance significantly. Through this focus, Sam went from being ranked in the bottom 10% in Show Jumping to being ranked No.1 in the world and from being a top thirty ranked rider in the sport overall to being the first Irish rider to be ranked in the top ten.
Photo by Chris Corbett @tallcorbs