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| Formerly | Al Munro Elias Baseball Bureau, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | Sports technology and data |
| Founded | 1913; 113 years ago (1913) |
| Founders | Al Munro Elias & Walter Elias |
| Headquarters | |
Key people | Seymour Siwoff (deceased) Joseph Gilston (President) |
| Website | https://www.esb.com/ |
TheElias Sports Bureau is an American privately held sports data company providing historical and currentstatistical information for the majorprofessional sports leagues operating in the U.S. and Canada.
Founded in 1913, Elias is considered a pioneering firm in the field of sports recordkeeping and has served as the longtime officialstatistician forMajor League Baseball (MLB), theNational Basketball Association (NBA), and theNational Football League (NFL).[1]
Other notable clients includeMajor League Soccer (MLS), theWNBA, theNBA G League, and thePGA, and the company also serves as the official statistician for theWBC. In addition to its league clients, Elias also maintains relationships with major media clients includingMLB Network,ESPN,The Sports Network, andCBSSports.com among others.
In 1913 Al Munro Elias and his brother Walter founded theAl Munro Elias Baseball Bureau, Inc. in New York City. The Bureau's methods of collection and presentation of statistics set the form and precedent for recording baseball information, and has influenced the universal collection and presentation of other sports’ leagues information ever since.
At first, the Munro brothers sold printed scorecards with baseball data directly to fans. The Bureau's popularity surged in 1916, when TheNew York Telegram daily newspaper began publishing the Bureau's weekly compilation of batting and pitching averages and league leaders. In 1916, Elias was named the official statistician of theNational League andInternational League (the minor league baseball circuit), with theAmerican League and otherminor leagues following shortly thereafter.[2]
In 1937, the Bureau took over the publication of Charley White's Record Book, also known as the “Little Red Book”, shortly after White’s passing. The Little Red Book was an official source for major league records and statistics used bysportswriters, club and league officials, players, and sports fans.[3]
Upon Al’s passing in 1938, Walter Elias became President of the Al Munro Elias Baseball Bureau and began publishing The Pocket Cyclopedia of Major League Baseball, the successor to the Little Red Book. Lester Goodman assumed control of the Al Munro Elias Baseball Bureau after the death of Walter Elias in 1949. Goodman managed the business on behalf of the Elias brothers’ widows until his passing in 1952.
That same year, Seymour Siwoff, who had joined the company in 1937 as an intern while studying at St. John's University, purchased the Al Munro Elias Baseball Bureau from the Elias's widows. Siwoff renamed the company theElias Sports Bureau to better fulfill his vision of incorporating all professional sports, and served as company president for 67 years. Under Siwoff, the company grew into the world’s most trusted source for sports data.
Elias became the official statisticians of the NFL in 1961 and the NBA in 1970. Elias was later named the founding statistician for MLS and the WNBA in 1993 and 1997, respectively — both partnerships that endure to the present day. Elias also became official statistician of theNHL in 1997, although the league now complies its official statistics internally. Still today, Elias remains the leading sports statistics source for newspapers, magazines, websites, and sports broadcasters across the country.
Seymour was inducted into theNew York Sports Hall of Fame in 1992 for Elias’s contribution to the growth in popularity of sports through statistics and recordkeeping. Posthumously, Siwoff was named a finalist for thePro Football Hall of Fame as a contributor in 2020, and was again named a semi-finalist in 2023 and 2024.[4][5]
After stepping down in 2019, Siwoff turned the company over to his grandson, Joe Gilston, who continues to serve as President. Gilston’s mission is to maintain the core company values of inclusion, accuracy, and accountability, while driving Elias’s modernization efforts.[6][7]
Elias receives daily game results directly from league offices. Elias scrubs the data, resolves any scoring issues, and archives the certified data for instant access. Official league data is then used to provide the following services: