How IBM Watson Sets To Provide A Smarter Fan Experience At Wimbledon 2022
This year’s Wimbledon Tennis Championships is set to be the smartest and most data-heavy ever, thanks to its continued partnership with IBM.
The computing giant has unveiled its latest range of upgrades and smart features as part of its work with tournament organizer, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC).
New additions this year include an enhanced fan prediction feature, an enhanced IBM Power Index that can help highlight the next generation of champions, and improved match insights powered by IBM’s Watson AI system.
Wimbledon 2022 Innovations
“We are very excited about this year,” said Alexandra Willis, AELTC’s director of communications and marketing, “but naturally we can’t just think about the past – we need to look forward at the same time. … the world is changing around us and the way people consume and continue to change.”
“We have this program of innovation that we are very proud to deliver in partnership with IBM and we often talk about the role of innovation in preserving Wimbledon’s traditions and ensuring that they are the future. Be relevant. It’s not about putting tradition and innovation in opposition to each other – it’s really about making them work in partnership.”
Not only tennis but perhaps as one of the most prestigious events in all sports, Wimbledon attracts many different types of fans with varying knowledge levels, hence the entry point through the Wimbledon.com website and official mobile app. Providing is important.
Offering a fan experience that caters to everyone from the casual observer who only watches Wimbledon to the data-hungry expert die-hard has presented a challenge, but AELTC and IBM now think it can win. .
This year’s championship sees the expansion of IBM Power Index, the statistics and data platform powered by IBM Watson that fuels the website and app to provide fans with a world of insight.
Along with a point-by-point analysis of each game throughout the tournament, its Match Insights tool is fueled by “Win Factors,” a more accessible way of explaining to fans why a player is doing well. Using IBM Watson Discovery and IBM Cloud, the tool can collect data such as form, head-to-head battles, ATP/WTA rankings and, thanks to Natural Language Processing (NLP), even recent Recent media coverage to provide more fan-friendly information to help people watch or spot any potential upsets.
Fans will now be able to debate and discuss their new icon with the “Have Your Say” fan prediction feature on the official Wimbledon app. It will give fans a chance to predict the outcome of any match, and then compare the scene with other fans around the world, as well as AI-powered “likely winning” predictions generated by IBM Watson.
Entering its 33rd year as partners, this year’s championships are more technologically advanced than ever, thanks largely to IBM’s “platform of innovation”, Kevin Farrar, Sports Partnerships Leader, IBM UK And said Ireland.
“It’s a lot about collaborating and co-creating content to bring to life the beauty and drama of championships for tennis fans around the world,” he said, adding that the “interpretive AI” company is engaging.
“It’s engaging and engaging to take in enormous amounts of data, create insights, and bring in new fans, and it’s about making sure fans who are already engaged with the platform stay with us.”
“It’s a great showcase for IBM’s capabilities … the data is at the heart of it.”