Media Coverage

[tiger Rudi]

I made the mistake today of buying a newspaper. Haven't done so for years tbh.

Step forward the Daily Record. Spur of the moment decision, not to be repeated!

 

I scanned the sports pages a few times just to make sure I hadn't missed it. Nope. Nothing.

Not a single line talking about Hearts. Not one.

Celtic and Rangers big two page spreads and back page. Big piece on Falkirk. 

Bits about Aberdeen and Hibs.

English clubs, yes, Scottish Cup, yes. 

 

Not a single word about our league challenge or our trip to Spain. Plenty about Rohl taking his lot away and how it could turn the tide in their favour.

 

We are up against everybody here. 

 

Bring this home boys, ram their OF weegie biased crap right down their throats. 

 

[Shankland31]

It’s disgraceful. Only in Scotland would such a thing be a non story. If we pull this off it will be one of the greatest achievements in world football history if not the greatest. Only if and when Celtic or Rangers pull ahead will there be a media frenzy. Please Hearts, stick it right up them over the next 5 games. It’s us against the world. We’re with you.

[Wee Mikey]

There's nothing new about Scotland's two biggest provincial clubs hogging the limelight.

 

It must be a constant scunner knowing that, ahem, we're from the Capital.

 

🙃

[Chairman of the Bored]

Why do people get bothered by this stuff? If the Scottish football press like you, then you’ve done something wrong. 

[Big Doug]

This is a good thing. Let’s us quietly go about our business without the associated noise.  We had all the attention a month or so ago when we were featured all over the radio and tv. We even had foreign tv news teams at the Oriam.

 

Let the Ugly Sisters take all the limelight, it only means less pressure on our boys.

[jamboozy]

The Daily Record is a Glasgow newspaper, not a Scottish one. It is entrenched in its way of pandering to two Glasgow clubs and their bitter fans. The footballing world starts and ends in Glasgow according to that rag of a ‘Newspaper’, they can’t even employ proper journalists 🤦‍♂️ ffs.

[Ian Black 8]

Suppose its a bit like Spain most of the time its Barca and Real getting spoken about! 5 cup finals to go and we will be on news papers beyond Scotland lol 

[pettigrewsstylist]

They dont beleive we are in the title race anymore, after Livi.

Think we are now 3/1 with bookies.

Hopefully that lets the squad breathe a little better.

[weaz1981]

Papers, especially tabloids, are irrelevant these days unless you are an old codger, picking up your morning rolls at 6am. Ignore.

[chrisyboy7]

I used to buy this rag every day. I got completely cheesed off with it and the clear overwhelming biased old firm covered. They must have lost tens of thousands of sales if not more.

[Wee Mikey]

12 minutes ago, chrisyboy7 said:

I used to buy this rag every day. I got completely cheesed off with it and the clear overwhelming biased old firm covered. They must have lost tens of thousands of sales if not more.

 

A quick AI search (which likely is much the same for most, if not all, printed media):-

 

 

[Dido of Consequence]

31 minutes ago, chrisyboy7 said:

I used to buy this rag every day. I got completely cheesed off with it and the clear overwhelming biased old firm covered. They must have lost tens of thousands of sales if not more.

Same. I used to to buy the record and the Evening News pretty much every day. Also the pink on a Saturday.

 

Can't remember the last time I bought a newspaper. 

[If carlsberg did rivals...]

22 minutes ago, Wee Mikey said:

 

A quick AI search (which likely is much the same for most, if not all, printed media):-

 

 

They've lost 95% of their readers! How are they even surviving?

[Dido of Consequence]

6 minutes ago, If carlsberg did rivals... said:

They've lost 95% of their readers! How are they even surviving?

Online ad revenue i guess. Must be struggling though

[Dick Dastardly]

10 minutes ago, Dido of Consequence said:

Online ad revenue i guess. Must be struggling though

They wont even be getting much of that now since they went to a subscription with only a few free articles a month. 

[hughesie27]

8 hours ago, tiger Rudi said:

I made the mistake today of buying a newspaper. Haven't done so for years tbh.

Step forward the Daily Record. Spur of the moment decision, not to be repeated!

 

I scanned the sports pages a few times just to make sure I hadn't missed it. Nope. Nothing.

Not a single line talking about Hearts. Not one.

Celtic and Rangers big two page spreads and back page. Big piece on Falkirk. 

Bits about Aberdeen and Hibs.

English clubs, yes, Scottish Cup, yes. 

 

Not a single word about our league challenge or our trip to Spain. Plenty about Rohl taking his lot away and how it could turn the tide in their favour.

 

We are up against everybody here. 

 

Bring this home boys, ram their OF weegie biased crap right down their throats. 

 

Suits me. The less pressure on the team thr better.

[Pans Jambo]

Hearts will be all over the daily record in the week leading up to us playing rangers what with Braga, Shankland, & Devlin signing for them in the summer 🙄

[Rogue Daddy]

Let’s be honest, if they stopped writing about the uglies, they’d lose 99% of their ‘hard-of-thinking’ paying readership. 

[henryheart]

It is because we have deliberately gone off the radar to take a break. The team is in Spain to get away from all the pressure and the drip feed of stories has dried up. It is not just the Daily Record; even the Evening News has been struggling to come up with anything new. 

[johnking123]

I want them to hate us. Means we are doing something right!

[Hømme]

Hearts are abroad and allowing no media access.

 

[AlphonseCapone]

2 hours ago, Ian Black 8 said:

Suppose its a bit like Spain most of the time its Barca and Real getting spoken about! 5 cup finals to go and we will be on news papers beyond Scotland lol 

 

Exactly. It's a weegie paper for weegies. Win the league and we'll be reading papers in Curacao about Hearts winning the league. Who gives a shit about what the Daily Record thinks.

[highlandjambo3]

9 hours ago, tiger Rudi said:

I made the mistake today of buying a newspaper. Haven't done so for years tbh.

Step forward the Daily Record. Spur of the moment decision, not to be repeated!

 

I scanned the sports pages a few times just to make sure I hadn't missed it. Nope. Nothing.

Not a single line talking about Hearts. Not one.

Celtic and Rangers big two page spreads and back page. Big piece on Falkirk. 

Bits about Aberdeen and Hibs.

English clubs, yes, Scottish Cup, yes. 

 

Not a single word about our league challenge or our trip to Spain. Plenty about Rohl taking his lot away and how it could turn the tide in their favour.

 

We are up against everybody here. 

 

Bring this home boys, ram their OF weegie biased crap right down their throats. 

 

We are not changing the weegia narrative anytime soon, the red top rags are published and printed in Glasgow for the benefit of two clubs and their unwashed masses.  We can go on and win the next 5 games 10-0 each game and not a jot will change.  We will get a token applaud from their hard of thinking pundits which will immediately be followed by the cheeks buildup to next season with who spends the most.

 

Roond the lot of them.

[Robbo-Jambo]

49 minutes ago, johnking123 said:

I want them to hate us. Means we are doing something right!

Correct

[Shaggy2]

I’m amazed (or maybe I’m not) they’re continuing to make a story about the thousands who will miss out on Tynecastle tickets. 
Why would 17,000 apply knowing their allocation? A proper club loyalty system wouldn’t allow 16,000 of those to apply. 
Our TO takes a hammering from time to time but the LP system ensures only those with a chance can apply. 

[Madjambo21]

2 hours ago, If carlsberg did rivals... said:

They've lost 95% of their readers! How are they even surviving?

Closed their printing plant in Glasgow and Watford and outsourced it else where.

 

Edited April 16 by Madjambo21

[innerjambo]

The rag only represents Glasgow. It's wrong to call this toilet paper Scottish media.

[Penrices left boot]

We're not playing  this weekend and in a training camp in Spain.

 

Wtf is there to cover?

[tiger Rudi]

9 hours ago, Penrices left boot said:

We're not playing  this weekend and in a training camp in Spain.

 

Wtf is there to cover?

Similar situation to Rangers then 

[Percival King]

Thread reminds me of the old Tynecastle days when, for games against Celtic and the original Rangers, national newspaper photographers would wait until the toss then go to the end Hearts were defending, only interested in catching an Old Firm goal, and we gave them both a game in those days. "Wrong $%€@&%@ end, you're at the wrong $@£€%$# end............".

[jamboinglasgow]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-04-17/scottish-football-hearts-fc-s-league-bid-is-powered-by-data?taid=69e1b160ba4ee50001ee0348&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_content=business&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&embedded-checkout=true

 

Bloomberg now covering our season (cant read it though as its behind a paywall.)

[Ex member of the SaS]

I bought a paper the other day, first time in years, I needed to cover the dining room table when painting some small parts.

Edited April 17 by Ex member of the SaS

[colinmaroon]

 

Having said that I saw Tam the Bam McManus writing an article that Hibs had better transfer windows than Hearts!!!

 

 

[Rogue Daddy]

10 minutes ago, colinmaroon said:

 

Having said that I saw Tam the Bam McManus writing an article that Hibs had better transfer windows than Hearts!!!

 

 

🤣🤣🤣🤣 …seen that on X. The DR mentioned it on their podcast and suggested he should pick his time better… ie. not when your bitter rivals are 19 points above you, at the top of the league!

Total mupppet!

… they then went on to talk about why Braga would command a bigger fee than any hobo. 

[Dalstonjambo]

54 minutes ago, jamboinglasgow said:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-04-17/scottish-football-hearts-fc-s-league-bid-is-powered-by-data?taid=69e1b160ba4ee50001ee0348&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_content=business&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&embedded-checkout=true

 

Bloomberg now covering our season (cant read it though as its behind a paywall.)

The benefits of being an employee..

How One Football Team Embraced Moneyball to Challenge Big Money Rivals

A fan-owned Scottish team joined forces with data specialists to set up Scottish football’s most exciting run-in for 40 years

 

 

 

 

By David Hellier

April 17, 2026 at 5:00 AM GMT+1

Save

Translate

 

In late 2023, Ann Budge, then president of Edinburgh-based club Heart of Midlothian Football Club, was facing another season of mid-table mediocrity. The last time a team other than Glasgow giants Celtic or Rangers were Scottish champions was the mid 1980s, when legendary manager Alex Ferguson led Aberdeen to the title.

Budge, a Scottish businesswoman and co-founder of an IT firm, helped save Hearts from financial collapse in 2014, and implemented a rare structure giving 75% of the 152-year-old club over to a fan-led group. In a sport increasingly dominated by hard cash, it was improbable that Hearts would discover a new Ferguson to take them to a title, or find a wealthy investor willing to let the fans stay in charge.

Then, Budge heard that Brighton & Hove Albion FC owner, Tony Bloom, was looking to invest in a Scottish club. Bloom, a professional gambler and football investor, took Brighton from a lower tier team to a mainstay in the English Premier League. And his success wasn’t down to massive spending, it was powered by data.

 

The tunnel leading to the pitch at Tynecastle Park, home of Heart of Midlothian FC.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

Bloom, and his data machine, has helped Hearts lead the Scottish league for much of the season. The club is top with just five games to go, on a budget far less than its rivals. Hearts’ latest accounts show a turnover of £24.4 million, compared to Rangers at £83.5 million and Celtic at £143.4 million. In last summer’s transfer window, Hearts spent just €5 million (£4.35 million) on new players, compared with €43.66 million (£37.96 million) at Rangers, according to transfermarkt.com, which reports in euros.

Behind the recent success is Jamestown Analytics, a firm that assists clubs in player acquisition and player rankings. Clubs that use Jamestown often pay a small retainer, with a far larger payment in the millions if they hit targets like promotion, qualification for Europe or silverware, according to a person familiar with the matter.

A number of teams have hired Jamestown across Europe, yielding notable improvements in team performance. Examples include Serie A’s Como, Spain’s Castellon, and particularly Belgium’s Union St Gilloise, which won the Belgian championship in 2025, ending a 90-year drought.

 

Ann Budge, center, during a William Hill Premiership match at Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh on Dec. 03.Photographer: Mark Scates./SNS Group/Getty Images

For a small football team from Edinburgh, it was an opportunity. The city is home to Scotland’s national rugby stadium, while its football clubs Hearts and Hibernian have long lived in the shadow of Celtic and Rangers in Glasgow 40 miles (64 kilometers) to the west. No-one in Scotland had tried using Jamestown to dislodge their duopoly.

While Jamestown isn’t technically owned by Bloom, it’s an offshoot of Starlizard, the secretive, London-based sports betting consultancy he founded in 2006. Budge met Bloom in Jamestown’s offices in London’s scruffy Camden Town shortly after she heard of his initial interest.

Bloom made it clear that any investment he made in Hearts was inextricably tied to the signing of an exclusive Scottish deal with Jamestown, according to people familiar with the situation. Gerry Mallon, who sits on the board at Hearts as a representative of the fans, was initially skeptical.

 

Hearts changing room at Tynecastle Park.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

“There were three red lines to the deal,” said Mallon. “It needed us, the fans, to continue to be the majority shareholder; we didn’t want to be a feeder club to any other club; and we didn’t want to be diluted unless there was a gamechanger element to it.”

On the plus side for Hearts, Jamestown has a strict non-compete clause. Ipswich FC, for example, used Jamestown on their promotion run to the Premier League, but had to stop using the firm after being promoted to the top tier in 2024, because of an exclusivity deal with Brighton. Ipswich were relegated the next season.

 

Hearts began using Jamestown in November 2024. It was not a good start. By April 2025, the club was hovering above the relegation playoffs and fired its manager, Neil Critchley, whose appointment was made by the full board but with the support of Jamestown.

Instead of wobbling, Hearts doubled down. Jamestown Analytics supported the decision to target new manager Derek McInnes, who had just guided rival team Kilmarnock to one of the club’s best seasons in the modern era.

“They don’t really choose managers,” says Andrew McKinlay, the Hearts chief executive officer. “They give views on managers they think have improved players the most.”

 

Rocky the Harris's hawk, who deters birds from gathering on the field or in the stadium seating.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

 

Hearts fans have been enjoying their football at Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh this season.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

Bloom also became personally involved, buying a 29% non-voting stake in Hearts for around £10 million in the summer of 2025, as part of the original discussions.

Over the past season turnaround has been dramatic. Hearts have led the league for the past 27 weekends apart from a brief 23 hour period earlier this month when Rangers played a day ahead of them, though both Celtic and Rangers have been narrowing the gap over recent weeks. Of the 11 players that started on Sunday April 5 away to Livingston, there are only four players that predate Jamestown.

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The use of Jamestown’s data “has allowed us to tap into markets we just would not have been able to,” says McKinlay, from his office within the club’s Tynecastle complex, adding that Jamestown is using the techniques applied in the gambling world to assist with player recruitment. “One of the reasons behind their success is likely to be the sheer volume of data based on the number of people they have analysing games throughout the world.”

Using Jamestown, Hearts identified high-performing players from lower European leagues at a low cost. For instance, two of their standout players this season, Greek winger Alexandros Kyziridis and Claudio Braga, were recruited from Slovakian and Norwegian second-tier football, respectively.

 

Greek winger Alexandros Kyziridis, left, during the first half of Hearts' game against Motherwell at Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh on April 11.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

 

Hearts manager Derek McInnes at the dugout before first half kick-off.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

While Kyziridis was a free transfer, Braga reportedly cost only around £430,000. Another key player this season, Harry Milne, also joined for free from Partick Thistle. This contrasts sharply with a club like Rangers, which signed Youssef Chermiti from Everton last September for a reported £8 million.

Unsurprisingly, Jamestown has won a number of fans across the boardroom of European clubs. Como’s director, Mirwan Surwaso, says that Jamestown Analytics is “the first filter for everything we do” when speaking at a recent Financial Times Football Summit. Surwaso explained that Como applies additional filters to the Jamestown data to refine player selection.

 

Indeed, it was the success in Europe that intrigued James Anderson, the former Baillie Gifford fund manager who became a regular donor to Hearts. An early backer of Tesla and Amazon during his career as investor, he had been more optimistic than Budge going into the meeting with Jamestown in London, he recalled.

“I thought that there was an opportunity and obviously I knew what Jamestown had achieved in several relevant comparisons,” he said in response to questions.

 

Hearts fans celebrating a 3-1 victory over Motherwell on April 11.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

 

Hearts players leaving the pitch following their 3-1 victory over Motherwell.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

The integration of data into sports inevitably creates friction with established practices. A case in point is the Irish team Shelbourne FC. Shortly after the charismatic, instinct-driven coach Damian Duff led the club to a league title, Shelbourne exclusively partnered with the data firm Jamestown.

Justin Said, Jamestown’s managing director, offered a brief statement on the club’s website, noting, “We remain selective about the clubs we work with and are pleased to begin this exciting partnership with Shelbourne.”

However, Said declined a full interview with Bloomberg, stating in an email that Jamestown would “prefer to stay out of the limelight.” In a separate email, he also refused to “comment on the commercial terms of the relationships” with any of the firm’s partner clubs.

Duff, known for his gut-feeling approach, quit soon after the Jamestown deal was announced, citing personal reasons. He has not commented publicly on Jamestown and declined to speak to Bloomberg for this article. Since then, Shelbourne’s performance has dipped: the team currently stands sixth out of 10 in the league and suffered the earliest possible exit from the European Conference League.

And with every data-based success story, there is a disaster. After being bought out by new US owners in 2025, Championship side Sheffield United used AI to help hire new players and fired Chris Wilder, its well respected manager that brought the team close to promotion the previous season. The club’s form collapsed, causing the club to re-hire Wilder to avoid relegation.

 

The Tynecastle Arms, next to Tynecastle Park, is a historic pub renowned as a key social hub for Hearts.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

“There’s actually a massive amount of data failure stories out there that people don’t talk about,” says Julian Sfeir, founder of Aztec Data Hub, a football analytics consulting firm that worked for a professional team in Scotland.

Not everyone attributes all the success at Hearts to the data either. “Things are working very well at the moment with Derek,” says Budge. “You don’t want to lose sight of the human touch.”

The Scottish Premiership title race could be decided on the final day, May 16th, with Hearts facing reigning champions Celtic. “Hearts is on the map again,” said Mallon. “We haven’t had headlines outside of Scotland since we went into administration.”

Edited April 17 by Dalstonjambo

[jamboinglasgow]

40 minutes ago, Dalstonjambo said:

The benefits of being an employee..

How One Football Team Embraced Moneyball to Challenge Big Money Rivals

A fan-owned Scottish team joined forces with data specialists to set up Scottish football’s most exciting run-in for 40 years

 

 

 

 

By David Hellier

April 17, 2026 at 5:00 AM GMT+1

Save

Translate

 

In late 2023, Ann Budge, then president of Edinburgh-based club Heart of Midlothian Football Club, was facing another season of mid-table mediocrity. The last time a team other than Glasgow giants Celtic or Rangers were Scottish champions was the mid 1980s, when legendary manager Alex Ferguson led Aberdeen to the title.

Budge, a Scottish businesswoman and co-founder of an IT firm, helped save Hearts from financial collapse in 2014, and implemented a rare structure giving 75% of the 152-year-old club over to a fan-led group. In a sport increasingly dominated by hard cash, it was improbable that Hearts would discover a new Ferguson to take them to a title, or find a wealthy investor willing to let the fans stay in charge.

Then, Budge heard that Brighton & Hove Albion FC owner, Tony Bloom, was looking to invest in a Scottish club. Bloom, a professional gambler and football investor, took Brighton from a lower tier team to a mainstay in the English Premier League. And his success wasn’t down to massive spending, it was powered by data.

 

The tunnel leading to the pitch at Tynecastle Park, home of Heart of Midlothian FC.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

Bloom, and his data machine, has helped Hearts lead the Scottish league for much of the season. The club is top with just five games to go, on a budget far less than its rivals. Hearts’ latest accounts show a turnover of £24.4 million, compared to Rangers at £83.5 million and Celtic at £143.4 million. In last summer’s transfer window, Hearts spent just €5 million (£4.35 million) on new players, compared with €43.66 million (£37.96 million) at Rangers, according to transfermarkt.com, which reports in euros.

Behind the recent success is Jamestown Analytics, a firm that assists clubs in player acquisition and player rankings. Clubs that use Jamestown often pay a small retainer, with a far larger payment in the millions if they hit targets like promotion, qualification for Europe or silverware, according to a person familiar with the matter.

A number of teams have hired Jamestown across Europe, yielding notable improvements in team performance. Examples include Serie A’s Como, Spain’s Castellon, and particularly Belgium’s Union St Gilloise, which won the Belgian championship in 2025, ending a 90-year drought.

 

Ann Budge, center, during a William Hill Premiership match at Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh on Dec. 03.Photographer: Mark Scates./SNS Group/Getty Images

For a small football team from Edinburgh, it was an opportunity. The city is home to Scotland’s national rugby stadium, while its football clubs Hearts and Hibernian have long lived in the shadow of Celtic and Rangers in Glasgow 40 miles (64 kilometers) to the west. No-one in Scotland had tried using Jamestown to dislodge their duopoly.

While Jamestown isn’t technically owned by Bloom, it’s an offshoot of Starlizard, the secretive, London-based sports betting consultancy he founded in 2006. Budge met Bloom in Jamestown’s offices in London’s scruffy Camden Town shortly after she heard of his initial interest.

Bloom made it clear that any investment he made in Hearts was inextricably tied to the signing of an exclusive Scottish deal with Jamestown, according to people familiar with the situation. Gerry Mallon, who sits on the board at Hearts as a representative of the fans, was initially skeptical.

 

Hearts changing room at Tynecastle Park.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

“There were three red lines to the deal,” said Mallon. “It needed us, the fans, to continue to be the majority shareholder; we didn’t want to be a feeder club to any other club; and we didn’t want to be diluted unless there was a gamechanger element to it.”

On the plus side for Hearts, Jamestown has a strict non-compete clause. Ipswich FC, for example, used Jamestown on their promotion run to the Premier League, but had to stop using the firm after being promoted to the top tier in 2024, because of an exclusivity deal with Brighton. Ipswich were relegated the next season.

 

Hearts began using Jamestown in November 2024. It was not a good start. By April 2025, the club was hovering above the relegation playoffs and fired its manager, Neil Critchley, whose appointment was made by the full board but with the support of Jamestown.

Instead of wobbling, Hearts doubled down. Jamestown Analytics supported the decision to target new manager Derek McInnes, who had just guided rival team Kilmarnock to one of the club’s best seasons in the modern era.

“They don’t really choose managers,” says Andrew McKinlay, the Hearts chief executive officer. “They give views on managers they think have improved players the most.”

 

Rocky the Harris's hawk, who deters birds from gathering on the field or in the stadium seating.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

 

Hearts fans have been enjoying their football at Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh this season.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

Bloom also became personally involved, buying a 29% non-voting stake in Hearts for around £10 million in the summer of 2025, as part of the original discussions.

Over the past season turnaround has been dramatic. Hearts have led the league for the past 27 weekends apart from a brief 23 hour period earlier this month when Rangers played a day ahead of them, though both Celtic and Rangers have been narrowing the gap over recent weeks. Of the 11 players that started on Sunday April 5 away to Livingston, there are only four players that predate Jamestown.

Get the Morning & Evening Briefing Europe newsletters.

Start every morning with what you need to know followed by context and analysis on news of the day each evening. Plus, Bloomberg Weekend.

 

 

 

By continuing, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

The use of Jamestown’s data “has allowed us to tap into markets we just would not have been able to,” says McKinlay, from his office within the club’s Tynecastle complex, adding that Jamestown is using the techniques applied in the gambling world to assist with player recruitment. “One of the reasons behind their success is likely to be the sheer volume of data based on the number of people they have analysing games throughout the world.”

Using Jamestown, Hearts identified high-performing players from lower European leagues at a low cost. For instance, two of their standout players this season, Greek winger Alexandros Kyziridis and Claudio Braga, were recruited from Slovakian and Norwegian second-tier football, respectively.

 

Greek winger Alexandros Kyziridis, left, during the first half of Hearts' game against Motherwell at Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh on April 11.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

 

Hearts manager Derek McInnes at the dugout before first half kick-off.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

While Kyziridis was a free transfer, Braga reportedly cost only around £430,000. Another key player this season, Harry Milne, also joined for free from Partick Thistle. This contrasts sharply with a club like Rangers, which signed Youssef Chermiti from Everton last September for a reported £8 million.

Unsurprisingly, Jamestown has won a number of fans across the boardroom of European clubs. Como’s director, Mirwan Surwaso, says that Jamestown Analytics is “the first filter for everything we do” when speaking at a recent Financial Times Football Summit. Surwaso explained that Como applies additional filters to the Jamestown data to refine player selection.

 

Indeed, it was the success in Europe that intrigued James Anderson, the former Baillie Gifford fund manager who became a regular donor to Hearts. An early backer of Tesla and Amazon during his career as investor, he had been more optimistic than Budge going into the meeting with Jamestown in London, he recalled.

“I thought that there was an opportunity and obviously I knew what Jamestown had achieved in several relevant comparisons,” he said in response to questions.

 

Hearts fans celebrating a 3-1 victory over Motherwell on April 11.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

 

Hearts players leaving the pitch following their 3-1 victory over Motherwell.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

The integration of data into sports inevitably creates friction with established practices. A case in point is the Irish team Shelbourne FC. Shortly after the charismatic, instinct-driven coach Damian Duff led the club to a league title, Shelbourne exclusively partnered with the data firm Jamestown.

Justin Said, Jamestown’s managing director, offered a brief statement on the club’s website, noting, “We remain selective about the clubs we work with and are pleased to begin this exciting partnership with Shelbourne.”

However, Said declined a full interview with Bloomberg, stating in an email that Jamestown would “prefer to stay out of the limelight.” In a separate email, he also refused to “comment on the commercial terms of the relationships” with any of the firm’s partner clubs.

Duff, known for his gut-feeling approach, quit soon after the Jamestown deal was announced, citing personal reasons. He has not commented publicly on Jamestown and declined to speak to Bloomberg for this article. Since then, Shelbourne’s performance has dipped: the team currently stands sixth out of 10 in the league and suffered the earliest possible exit from the European Conference League.

And with every data-based success story, there is a disaster. After being bought out by new US owners in 2025, Championship side Sheffield United used AI to help hire new players and fired Chris Wilder, its well respected manager that brought the team close to promotion the previous season. The club’s form collapsed, causing the club to re-hire Wilder to avoid relegation.

 

The Tynecastle Arms, next to Tynecastle Park, is a historic pub renowned as a key social hub for Hearts.Photographer: Lorna MacKay/Bloomberg

“There’s actually a massive amount of data failure stories out there that people don’t talk about,” says Julian Sfeir, founder of Aztec Data Hub, a football analytics consulting firm that worked for a professional team in Scotland.

Not everyone attributes all the success at Hearts to the data either. “Things are working very well at the moment with Derek,” says Budge. “You don’t want to lose sight of the human touch.”

The Scottish Premiership title race could be decided on the final day, May 16th, with Hearts facing reigning champions Celtic. “Hearts is on the map again,” said Mallon. “We haven’t had headlines outside of Scotland since we went into administration.”

 

thanks

[EIEIO]

Thanks for pasting the article@Dalstonjambo. It puts the Daily Record and "Scottish" Sun in the shade, to dawn it by faint praise. Tremendous in depth article.

[Tommy Brown]

On 16/04/2026 at 08:10, If carlsberg did rivals... said:

They've lost 95% of their readers! How are they even surviving?

Wouldn't be surprised if all printed newspapers are showing similar % drops.

Very little need for print now.

[feedthefox]

Does the EEN blow smoke up the uglies arse? Getting offended because the DR isn't talking about Hearts, you must bruise easily.

[fila]

It’s been that way all my life , it’s always will be a west bias. Doesn’t bother me anymore, they are old news media now ! 
 

I much prefer getting my news through JKB , unbiased and always on the ball 😆

[fila]

9 hours ago, jamboinglasgow said:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-04-17/scottish-football-hearts-fc-s-league-bid-is-powered-by-data?taid=69e1b160ba4ee50001ee0348&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_content=business&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&embedded-checkout=true

 

Bloomberg now covering our season (cant read it though as its behind a paywall.)

Good share 👍