Google Cloud Replaces AWS As MLB’s Cloud Provider

In its efforts to gain ground against AWS and Microsoft, Google has signed a multi-year deal to become Major League Baseball’s cloud provider.

Google Cloud continues to be a distant third-place in the U.S. cloud market, behind leader AWS and second-place Microsoft. Despite its current standing, Google Cloud’s CEO Thomas Kurian has committed to becoming at least the second-place provider within five years. In its efforts to reach its goal, the company has recently completed an internal shakeup, cutting a number of jobs to better streamline its focus.

Now the company has secured a multi-year deal to become MLB’s Official Cloud and Cloud Data and Analytics partner, replacing AWS as MLB’s provider. The deal also includes running Statcast on Google Cloud. Statcast is an automated tool to help the MLB analyze player abilities and movement. MLB will also use Google Ad Manager and Dynamic Ad Insertion in its ads business.

“Every season we work to apply emerging technology to engage and support our fans, clubs and broadcasters in new and exciting ways,” said Jason Gaedtke, MLB’s Chief Technology Officer. “MLB has enjoyed a strong partnership with Google based on Google Ad Manager’s live ad delivery with MLB.tv as well as YouTube’s strong fan engagement during exclusive live games. We are excited to strengthen this partnership by consolidating MLB infrastructure on Google Cloud and incorporating Google’s world-class machine learning technology to provide personalized and immersive fan experiences. We couldn’t have picked a better technology partner across ad delivery, streaming, cloud computing and machine learning.”

“MLB, which has led the sporting world in the use of data since the early 1990s, has shown the sports industry and sporting fans globally what’s possible when you combine data with human performance,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. “We’re looking forward to working with MLB to usher in a new era of innovation in sport, and together we can have a substantial impact on the game, giving the next generation of fans a different way to experience America’s favorite pastime.”

This contract is a big win for Google as it touts its cloud abilities. According, to Google’s statement, “MLB’s migration to Google Cloud has already resulted in an exponential improvement in analytics and decision making, enabling MLB to provide teams with a unified data plane to enable accelerated decision making.”

The company will likely be able to leverage that positive feedback to capture even more market share.