IBM unveils AI and cloud-powered fan experiences at Wimbledon 2022

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IBM, Wimbledon’s Official Technology Partner for 33 years, is improving the digital fan experience and boosting innovation. IBM and the All-England Lawn Tennis Club have partnered to deliver innovative online Wimbledon experiences.

IBM, Wimbledon's Official Technology Partner for 33 years, is improving the digital fan experience and boosting innovation.

IBM and the All-England Lawn Tennis Club have partnered to deliver innovative online Wimbledon experiences. These innovative techniques use IBM Cloud and hybrid cloud AI. All-England Club and IBM produced new features for Wimbledon.com and app. They're the newest additions to a spectrum of digital fan experiences that includes the award-winning1 IBM Power Index with Watson, IBM Match Insights with Watson, and Personalized Recommendations and Highlight Reels. These digital fan experiences aim to keep worldwide audiences updated on players, matches, and the competition.

The following are new aspects introduced in 2022:

"Win Factors" provides "Match Insights" with an expanded capacity to explain its findings: IBM is offering an extra degree of explainability into what parameters are being analyzed by the AI system to derive match insights and forecasts. This new feature builds on the current Match Insights functionality of the Wimbledon app and Wimbledon.com. Fans will have a better understanding of the factors that influence player performance after using Win Factors. These factors include the IBM Power Index, the court surface, the ATP/WTA rankings, head-to-head, the ratio of games won to the net number of sets won, recent performance, yearly success, and media punditry. Win Factors can be downloaded for free here.

"Have Your Say" features a brand-new feature that allows for participatory fan predictions: Through the Have Your Say feature, users of the Wimbledon app and Wimbledon.com may now, for the first time ever, enter their own personal predictions for the outcomes of individual matches. They will then be able to evaluate their forecast in light of the aggregated predictions made by other fans as well as IBM's AI-powered Likelihood to Win projections.

The digital elements of Wimbledon are supported by IBM Watson, and they take advantage of a hybrid cloud strategy. This technique makes use of a combination of on-premises systems, private clouds, and the IBM Cloud, which enables enhanced flexibility and efficiency. These digital experiences are supported by a foundation and scalable capabilities provided by IBM Cloud. It holds and analyses data from matches, which is then put into artificial intelligence models constructed with IBM Watson Studio and IBM Watson Discovery to offer insights for fans, pundits, and the media.

"Leveraging technology to help fans become more informed, engaged, and involved throughout the Wimbledon Fortnight is at the core of our strategy to ensure that we are leveraging innovation to keep Wimbledon relevant and deliver outstanding digital experiences for fans, wherever they may be," said Alexandra Willis, Communications & Marketing Director at The All-England Club. "Leveraging technology to help fans become more informed, engaged, and involved throughout the Wimbledon Fortnight." We are happy to announce that this year, when Wimbledon returns to its full capacity, we will be able to deliver an even more vibrant and engaging digital experience to fans all around the world thanks to our relationship with IBM. We want to help fans feel more connected to Wimbledon by letting them know which players they should be watching and analyzing, as well as by inviting them to participate in new match predictions and insights features, in addition to our extensive coverage of scoring, news, and video content across all of our channels. This goal is at the heart of these experiences.

"The digital fan features on the Wimbledon app and Wimbledon.com, beautifully designed by the IBM iX team and powered by AI and hybrid cloud technologies, are enabling the All-England Club to immerse tennis lovers in the magic of The Championship, no matter where in the world they are," said Kevin Farrar, Sports Partnership Leader for IBM UK & Ireland. "The digital fan features on the Wimbledon app and Wimbledon.com were beautifully designed by the IBM iX team." Fans of different sports, such as triathlon sport, enjoy debating different points of view, and this year, we are excited to launch a new tool that will enable fans to do just that by letting them register their own match predictions and compare them with those that were generated by Match Insights with Watson and those that were registered by other fans.

As the Official Technology Partner of The Championships for the past 33 years, IBM has developed solutions to modernise and streamline workloads, and it has delivered innovative digital experiences to engage sports fans all over the world through IBM iX, the experience design arm of IBM Consulting. These solutions and experiences have been delivered by IBM. Wimbledon continues to drive innovation and improve the digital fan experience by using the technology that IBM utilizes with businesses across industries and throughout the world.

The following are examples of IBM-powered digital experiences that may be seen on Wimbledon.com and within the Wimbledon app:

Powered by IBM Watson, the IBM Power Index

  • An study of player performance that is powered by AI to assist fans in determining who to follow in addition to the most well-known and highly ranked players.
  • Conducts analyses of performance data, mines media opinion, and measures player momentum with the assistance of IBM Watson Discovery and IBM Cloud.
  • Generates information for fans, such as a list of "Ones to Watch" and a likelihood of winning, among other things.

IBM Watson is used for the IBM Match Insights service.

  • Makes use of artificial intelligence in order to develop a player factsheet for main draw singles matches, which surfaces player insights and presents the IBM Power Index as well as winner predictions.
  • Includes a 'In the Media' feature that makes use of IBM Watson Discovery to glean important information on players from reputable news sources.
  • Contains a component titled "By the Numbers," which employs open-source artificial intelligence to transform previous match statistics into player insights.
  • The Have Your Say function on the Wimbledon app and website has been updated so that users may now enter their own predictions for the outcomes of matches. This feature is new for this year.

Reels Comprised of Individually Tailored Suggestions and Highlights

  • Once a fan has picked who they want to follow via the IBM Power Index, they will receive a series of individualized suggestions and highlight reels that will allow them to remain up to date.
  • This gives fans the opportunity to learn about new players by presenting them with recommendations based on the players they already follow, the IBM Power Rankings, the best players, their nationality, and their age.
  • Connects to IBM Power Index Leaderboard and Match Insights with Watson for extra benefits. If you sign up for myWimbledon, you'll get player-specific highlights. You'll get email updates.

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