PUR - Digital Scoresheet arrives to revolutionize basketball of the Americas:

SAN JUAN (2009 FIBA Americas Championship) - Looking to continue advancing technologically, FIBA Americas adapted a new program that will help them with the development of basketball in the region, called Digital Scoresheet, developed by Miguel Betancor, Antonio Ojeda and Juan Ignacio González who with their experience and knowledge in the technical aspects of the game have helped a huge number of federations have been benefited from this tool.

"We started to test in the U18 European Championship in Belgrade and we went thru all European tournaments including the Euroleague Final Four. The importance of the Digital Scoresheet is that all the information that is recovered in a digital form can have a physical link with the video so you can review it instantly," said Gonzalez who does seminars and orientations to the people who are going to use the program.

Betancor supervises the operation and since he was a former FIBA referee, he still gives new ideas to continue improving the utility while Ojeda and Gonzalez are the ones who know the technology of this program who combines the play by play with video, being a valuable tool to study the teams.
  
This program started with an idea from Betancor after he officiated a game for the Bronze medal in France where for mistake Dejan Bodiroga went out with fouls.

"After that I started to think about a system to correct the mistakes made by the table officials and also refereeing in an instant. The program started to develop in 2004 in Europe and now we are adapting it to the necessities of FIBA Americas who are going to execute a plan to put it in the continent."

Betancor, who has 45 years of experience as a referee and 22 internationally, being in the best competitions in Europe. He currently works at Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the center for Sports Refereeing along with Ojeda who was never a referee but has learned from Betancor.

In America this program was used in the II Marchand Continental Championship Cup and then in the FIBA Americas Championship where the table officials and referees have adapted quickly. The teams have seen the utility of this program in the Technical meeting and they ask for dvd's after the game to study their team and opponents.

Luis Modestti
FIBA Americas