The Short Mat Players Tour (SMPT) is entering a new era of player data, as the stats platform that has been running in beta for the past year now moves across to become the official home of SMPT stats at stats.shortmatplayerstour.com, replacing the previous site at that address.
The upgrade marks one of the biggest behind-the-scenes changes in SMPT’s 14-year history, as the Tour moves away from Tournament Software and onto its own purpose-built platform for managing and presenting player statistics.
What’s changing
Live stats, updated as tournaments happen
Rather than waiting for a final results upload, player stats will now update as each tournament progresses. Fans and players following along will be able to track form, results and standings in something much closer to real time.
Everything in one place on the live blog
Tournament live blogs will now be able to show more information than ever before, bringing all the latest updates, results and group standings together in a single place for fans to follow. Alongside the live blog, players will also be able to follow the tournament directly on the stats site itself.
A dedicated home for player stats
With SMPT stepping away from Tournament Software, the new stats site becomes the single home for player statistics going forward, built and maintained by SMPT, for SMPT.
Rule change: the return of true head-to-head
Alongside the platform launch, SMPT is introducing a change to how group standings are decided when players finish level on points.
Currently, when players are tied on points in a group, they are separated first by head-to-head results between the tied players, and then by overall shot difference across the whole group.
From now on, a new step is being reintroduced between those two: head-to-head shot difference. This is the shot difference generated purely from matches between the tied players, rather than across all their group matches. The new stats platform makes it possible to display this information far more clearly on group displays than before, making the reintroduction of this measure both fair and easy to follow.
The full order for deciding group standings will now be:
1. Points
2. Head-to-head results
3. Head-to-head shot difference
4. Overall shot difference
In practice, this means three players locked together on points and head-to-head results will now be split by how they performed specifically against each other, before the wider group shot difference is even considered.
Why it matters
We believe the combination of a dedicated stats platform and a fairer, clearer standings system will give players a more accurate and engaging picture of where they stand throughout an event.