The Story of Pro Football Focus (PFF) & Business Growth

If you watch the NFL or college football, you’ve probably recognized Pro Football Focus. PFF is a sports analytics company that focuses on in-depth statistics for NFL and college football teams.

Here’s a quick timeline on PFF’s story:

• 2004 - Neil Hornsby is a management consultant in the UK. He was growing tired of the typical statistics within sports, especially American football.

• Hornsby starts grading NFL players on his own. At the time, PFF is considered a hobby.

• 2006 - PFF is created and it’s the first NFL season in which they put together a set of data. Neil starts taking it more seriously and grows staff count.

• 2007 - Official website launches.

• 2011 - PFF has 3 NFL teams as customers, along with some agents, and media companies.

• 2014 - Cris Collinsworth takes notice in PFF and acquires majority stake for $6M. PFF has 13 employees (Neil and 12 analysts) and is working with 13 NFL teams.

• PFF’s business operations move to Cincinnati, along with Hornsby and his family.

Before the investment in PFF, Cris and Neil separately analyzed an NFL game. There was a ton of similarities between the reports, along with new information on PFF’s side. What Collinsworth loved was the amount of time he saved using PFF’s data. This seems to be the main selling point. Cris is now able to supplement his preparation for NFL games with PFF and provide unique insights on player grades.

According to Front Office Sports, PFF was valued at $160 million in 2021.

In 2022, a private equity firm called Silver Lake (over $100B in assets), invested $50 million in PFF for minority stake. Silver Lake has stake in LEARFIELD, Madison Square Garden Sports, and SoFi to name a few.

Currently, PFF works with all 32 NFL teams, 133 college football programs, 9 CFL teams, major media groups, and sports agencies. NFL teams pay a six-figure range and college football programs pay a mid-five-figure range (and up) for PFF’s solutions.

Here are PFF’s solutions:

• PFF Player Grades - NFL player evaluations from every game, specific grading rubric for positions

• QB Annual - in-depth analysis on the NFL’s quarterbacks each season

• NFL Draft Guides - over 250 extensive scouting reports each draft

• Free Agent Rankings - analysis on free agents and projected salaries

• NFL Draft Big Board - player grades, combine data, position rankings

• NFL Power Rankings - based on weekly player grades and plays

• 12 Fantasy Football tools related to projections, drafting, rankings

• 4 Betting tools on predictions, spread, moneyline markets

• 4 College tools focused on matchup previews, rankings, player grades