IBM reveals AI and Cloud powered fan experiences for Wimbledon 2022

IBM is now combining the power of the hybrid cloud and AI to create a unique digital experience for lots of Wimbledon fans across the globe.

The US tech company has been the official technology partner of the Championships for over three decades in recent years and is also relentlessly improving the digital fan experience with cutting-edge technology.

Alexandra Willis, Communications & Marketing Director, 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. In partnership with IBM, we are thrilled to bring an even more dynamic and interactive digital experience to fans around the world when this year as Wimbledon returns to full capacity. Core to these experiences is our ambition to help fans get closer to Wimbledon by understanding which players to follow and analyse and inviting them to get involved with new match predictions and insights features, alongside our extensive scoring, news and video content across our channels."

Kevin Farrar, Sports Partnership Leader, IBM UK & Ireland, said, "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 they are in the world. 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'."

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 revealed that it is building on the existing Match Insights feature of the Wimbledon app and Wimbledon.com to provide an additional level of explainability into what factors are being analyzed by the AI system to determine match insights and predictions.

By using the IBM Watson Discovery and IBM Cloud, the company comes up with a new features known by the name ‘Win Factors’  that will offer fans an increased understanding of the elements affecting player performance, such as the IBM Power Index, ATP, head to head, court surface, the ratio of games won, recent performance, net of sets won, media punditry.