About this episode

Meghan Chayka discusses the evolution of sports analytics and its impact on hockey and fan culture.

On this episode of Mission Critical, Lance Chung speaks with Meghan Chayka, co-founder of Stathletes, about the rise of sports analytics, the future of AI in hockey, and what it means to build a category-defining company in a rapidly changing industry. Chayka explains how Stathletes grew from a startup focused on hockey data into a major sports technology company powering teams, leagues, media, and betting platforms. She also shares her hot takes on AI, why most people underestimate how hard tech is to operationalize, and why the next chapter of sports may be shaped as much by emotion and storytelling as by data. From women’s sports and fan culture to scaling a Canadian tech business without chasing an exit, this is a candid conversation about innovation, resilience, and building what comes next. Key Takeaways: Meghan Chayka started early. Stathletes began before sports data was fashionable, when analytics in hockey still faced real skepticism. Tech is not magic. One of Chayka’s sharpest points is that AI and automation are much harder to operationalize than most people think. The future of sports analytics is more immersive. Data is no longer just tables and dashboards. It is…

People in this episode

Host: Lance Chung

Guest: Meghan Chayka

Topics covered

• sports analytics
• AI in sports
• hockey data
• fan culture
• innovation
• entrepreneurship

Keywords

• sports analytics
• AI
• hockey
• Stathletes
• fan culture
• entrepreneurship
• innovation
• data visualization

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Stathletes, AI, Canadian tech business, women’s sports, sports technology company, sports analytics, hockey, betting platforms, media

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