SWAT: The Team That Supports the Technical Infrastructure of The World Cup Data 2026

SWAT —Sports World Analytics Team— is the specialist team responsible for the technical side of the 2026 Data World Cup: automation, API integration, the production of graphics and the uploading of content to the CMS. This work is not visible in the final published result, but it ensures that result is available within hours of the final whistle.

The students who make up the SWAT team

SWAT is led by Lucas Bracamonte and Fredi Martin, Academic Directors at SDC, and Gastón Darío González,  Head of Operations & Ecosystem Strategy (DPE) and comprises José Espinoza, David Canet, Franco Jordán, Carlos Gómez, Catalin Rotaru, Aithor Castillejo, and Ramón Codesido:  a group of Sports Data Campus students who take on one of the most crucial — and least visible — roles in the entire World Cup of Data, ensuring that the project’s technical machinery keeps running smoothly.

The Mission: Being the Backstage That Never Fails

In a project measured by delivery times as tight as those of a professional analytics department, SWAT’s work is what supports all the other teams. Their goal is clear: to solve the technical side so that the analysts, visualization experts, and editorial teams can focus on their own tasks without worrying about whether the data will arrive on time or not.

Their responsibilities unfold across four fronts:

• Automation and API connection, handling the download of data files that feed all subsequent analysis.
• Production of graphic elements with a defined visual identity, ready for the other teams to use consistently and coherently.

• Cross-technical support, being attentive to any needs that arise within other working groups during the tournament’s development.

• Automation of post validation: a system that checks each article before it is published on the blog and determines whether it meets the criteria for publication or whether it should be returned for correction.

Why This Work Matters

No xG analysis, no passing network, and no heat map gets published without someone first having solved automation, structured the data flow, and uploaded the content to the correct system. SWAT is, in this sense, the student equivalent to the data engineering departments that support elite clubs: the work that isn’t seen in the final product, but without which the final product would not exist.

While more than 100 students analyze every match of the 2026 World Cup in three languages, SWAT ensures that this chain never breaks at any link.