Gen AI qualifies
for wimbledon

When the Wimbledon tennis championship serves up its two weeks of action starting next week, one of the key players will be a machine. Or rather, the watsonx AI and data platform developed by IBM.

The All-England Lawn Tennis Club and IBM have announced a new feature for the Wimbledon digital experience that will leverage match data with generative AI from watsonx.

The new ‘Catch Me Up’ feature displays pre- and post-match player cards with AI-generated player stories and analysis via wimbledon.com and the Wimbledon 2024 App. Player cards will be personalised based on user preferences and data such as their location and myWimbledon profile, starting with their favourite players. Pre-match content will include analysis of recent performance and likelihood to win predictions, and post-match it will include key statistics and highlights. The feature will also create longer-form daily summaries of play.

‘Catch Me Up’ was built using IBM’s Granite large language model (LLM) to provide AI-generated text using the capabilities of the watsonx platform. The model has been trained on the Wimbledon editorial style and will be monitored by the All England Club. The new feature is designed to help Wimbledon scale its content to both new and existing tennis fans globally, as well as provide fans access to timelier, curated coverage across ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles matches which are often happening simultaneously. 

This year, Wimbledon will also use generative AI to provide coverage of a broader range of matches than was previously available, including wheelchair events, to offer more to Wimbledon’s diverse international audience. This will form part of a redesigned digital match centre, known as IBM Slamtracker, available on the Wimbledon App and wimbledon.com. Using generative AI built from watsonx, IBM Slamtracker has been enhanced to  provide bullet point-based match previews and post-match reviews for ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles matches.

The announcement comes as new research from IBM and Morning Consult reveals that 55% of global tennis fans surveyed think AI will have a positive impact on sports. When considering how generative AI could improve their experience, these respondents prioritised real-time updates (36%), personalised content (31%), and unique insights (30%). Approximately one-third (31%) of global tennis fans surveyed use multiple devices while watching sporting events, primarily to get more information, watch multiple matches at the same time, and interact with other fans. In addition, nearly half (47%) of them engage with additional content on tennis daily or weekly and rank summarisation and personalisation as the two most important features of sports content.

Chris Clements, digital products lead at the All England Club, said: “We are committed to offering fans the highest quality Wimbledon experience, whether it’s in person or digitally. Generative AI allows us to scale our ability to provide different types of content for fans wherever they are in the world in a way that’s personalised for them. This year’s new Catch Me Up feature will make it easier for fans to follow the key storylines as they emerge throughout The Championships.”

Jonathan Adashek, senior vice president of marketing and communications for IBM, said: “The new Catch Me Up feature is an exciting example of how we can use the power of generative AI to deliver compelling, insight-driven storytelling at scale. For 35 years, IBM and Wimbledon have been co-creating solutions that make fans feel more connected to all the on-court action, and our new research confirms they are beginning to understand the positive impact technologies such as generative AI can have on their digital experiences. IBM is also putting these same technologies from our AI and data platform watsonx into the hands of clients worldwide, across nearly every sector, to address their unique business needs.”

Additional highlights from the IBM and Morning Consult survey include:

Majority of global tennis fans surveyed think technology will have a positive impact on multiple aspects of the sport – for fans, coaches and players alike

• 60% of tennis fans surveyed think technology will have a positive impact on the advancement of fan engagement.
• More specifically, 75% of tennis fan respondents think technology will have a positive impact on the advancement of training; game strategy (74%); coaching (71%); and talent identification & acquisitions (66%).

Nearly a third of global tennis fans surveyed use more than one device to watch multiple matches at once, get more information and interact with other fans

• 24% of tennis fans surveyed use two devices; 5% report using three devices and 2% report using more than three devices at the same time.
• 45% of the surveyed tennis fans who use multiple devices do so to get more information while watching tennis; 32% do it to watch multiple matches simultaneously; and 30% do so to interact with other fans while watching a match.

The Championships, Wimbledon will run from 1-14 July 2024. To see the technology in action, visit wimbledon.com or download the Wimbledon App on your mobile device, available on the App Store and Google Play Store.