IBM reveals AI-powered fan experiences for Wimbledon 2022

Tech major IBM is combining the power of hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) to create a unique digital experience for millions of Wimbledon fans around the world. The US-tech company has been the official technology partner of the Championships for over three decades and in recent years, and is relentlessly improving the digital fan experience with cutting-edge technology.

For Wimbledon 2022, IBM along with The All-England Club, the venue of the Championships, has come up with some new features. The tech major said that it is ‘building’ on the existing Match Insights feature of the Wimbledon app and Wimbledon.com, to offer an “additional level of explainability into what factors are being analysed by the AI system to determine match insights and predictions”. 

By using IBM Watson Discovery and IBM Cloud, the company comes up with a new feature called ‘Win Factors’ that will provide fans with an increased understanding of the elements affecting player performance, such as the IBM Power Index, court surface, ATP/WTA rankings, head-to-head, ratio of games won, net of sets won, recent performance, yearly success, and media punditry.

Like the previous year, it includes a ‘by the numbers’ section that uses open-source AI to translate historical match statistics into player insights.  

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Also, for the first time, users can register their own predictions for match outcomes on the Wimbledon app and Wimbledon.com, through the Have Your Say feature. They can then compare their prediction with other fans through the AI-powered ‘Likelihood to Win’ predictions generated by IBM.

The Wimbledon digital features are underpinned by IBM Watson and leverage a hybrid cloud approach – using a combination of on-premises systems, private clouds, and IBM Cloud - enabling increased flexibility and efficiency, said IBM in an official statement.

“Sports fans love to debate and we’re excited to introduce a new tool this year to enable that by allowing people to register their own match predictions and compare them with predictions generated by Match Insights with Watson and those of other fans,” Kevin Farrar, Sports Partnership Leader, IBM UK & Ireland, said.

Alexandra Willis, Communications and Marketing Director, at the All-England Club, said, “Leveraging technology to help fans become more informed, engaged and involved throughout the Wimbledon Fortnight is at the core of our strategy to ensure we are leveraging innovation to keep Wimbledon relevant and deliver outstanding digital experiences for fans - wherever they may be.” 

Like every year, he believes this year too, the partnership with IBM will bring an even more dynamic and interactive digital experience to fans around the world this year as Wimbledon returns to full capacity, he said.