NCAA members have embraced Stat Crew for decades as the defacto way to share statistics.  Stat Crew users exchange statistics with an opponent using a special file format called a "packed" file.  These files, which use extensions like '.SPK', are different for every sport and contain everything a user needs to edit and calculate statistics about their players and teams.

PrestoSports is pleased to announce that our statistics network is 100% compatbile with Stat Crew Legacy and will support sharing packed files for soccer starting this week.  All users of the PrestoSports Network will be able to share packed files with their opponents for free.

Stat Crew Legacy can export numerous file formats, from HTML for websites to XML for live stats providers and media, to other files for reporting.  But only a packed file with play by play data lets one Stat Crew Legacy user have complete control over the statistics that were sent to them by their opponents.  HTML and XML are nice for printing summary reports of statistics, but they do not allow Stat Crew Legacy to import and edit statistics.

For the past three years, we based our statistics platform off of the XML reports, with everything from live stats to dynamic player reports to leader pages to mini box scores.  However, as we prepared for a free alternative to Stat Crew Legacy, we knew that we had to read and write packed files.  Our users would not accept data sharing that would leave their statistics out of their control, waiting for an opponent to make another change and send them a correct game file.

We created an extensive testing system that allowed us to confirm that we could import and export packed files and create the identical XML that Stat Crew has created.  Now that soccer has passed all of our tests, we're ready to release it to everyone.  Field hockey is just around the corner, and we have much of the work done for basketball, baseball, and volleyball.  We expect to provide 100% compatibility for all Stat Crew Legacy software by late this fall.

The PrestoSports Network also includes email alerts, so as soon your opponent finishes their game and uploads it to the Network, you will be notified that the stats were uploaded.  We're considering improvements such as attaching the packed file to the email, so you don't even have to sign in to the Network to download stats into your Stat Crew Legacy.

One final great thing is our complete version history of statistics.  If you see any errors in the packed file that you upload, please go ahead and upload the XML report and notify our support team of the issues.  This way your site does not have to show any errors, and our developers will be able to get your packed file and the correct XML you provided from Stat Crew.  We can add your data to our testing system to ensure that this file always works going forward.

So, go ahead and start uploading some soccer packed files so your opponents can quickly get to your data.  Please let us know what other alerts or tools you think would be helpful to your statting experience.