Decades before “Moneyball” hit theaters and long before the book that inspired the movie was published, a company in Chicago called STATS, which stands for “Sports Team Analysis and Tracking Systems,” was busy collecting and analyzing baseball statistics. 

The firm, which merged last year with U.K.-based Perform Content to create Stats Perform, now analyzes a wide range of sports data with artificial intelligence technology, including a novel AI system that collects player tracking data directly from video broadcasts of games. The NBA’s Orlando Magic currently uses the tech to analyze potential college recruits.