The Premier League has implemented skeletal tracking technology since April 2025, joining FIFA and UEFA in using advanced body pose data to enhance officiating and player analysis capabilities.

Genius Sports serves as the official tracking provider through its Second Spectrum technology, which has collected skeletal data in England's top division since October 2022. The system uses up to 30 stadium cameras to track 29 skeletal points on every player at 100 frames per second.

The technology creates three-dimensional representations of player movements by mapping key joints including shoulders, hips, elbows, knees and ankles. This represents a significant advancement from traditional tracking that monitored basic player positions at 25 frames per second.

FIFA and UEFA currently use skeletal tracking for semi-automated offside technology, combining body pose information with ball-tracking data. The system debuted at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and now operates in the Champions League, Serie A and La Liga.

"Previously, we had center-of-mass tracking where we had one tag on a person. You roughly knew where the player was on the pitch, and how fast they were running and what direction — but you really couldn't extrapolate the information out further," said Matt Fleckenstein, Genius Sports' chief product officer.

Genius Sports has innovated by installing waterproof iPhones rather than expensive specialized cameras in each stadium. The system can track up to 10,000 surface points on each player more than 200 times per second.

Technology company Meta partnered with DAZN during the Club World Cup to create virtual reality experiences using skeletal tracking data. Viewers could watch 3D recreations of all 22 players synchronized with live action.

"Nothing stops you from choosing any viewing angle that you want, because it's digitally created using data — there's no fixed camera angle," said Marc Lange, DAZN's executive vice president of product marketing.

The technology enables immersive 3D replay capabilities, allowing coaches to analyze sequences from players' first-person perspectives and improve decision-making analysis.