Wimbledon, the oldest tennis tournament, will be offering artificial intelligence (AI)-based audio commentary and player analysis for fans during the upcoming competition. The initiative is the result of a collaboration between The All England Lawn Tennis Club and International Business Machines (IBM). The AI-powered audio commentary tool will allow fans to observe key moments of matches with insightful commentary. The IBM AI Draw Analysis tool will also be launched and will predict each player’s chances of reaching the final based on their recent performance and ranking.
IBM collaborated with The All England Lawn Tennis Club to train the AI to understand the rules and specifics of tennis. The company believes that the AI-powered features will provide fans with a more “insightful experience” when following the tournament. Jonathan Adashek, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications, said that the innovative feature could help major sporting events like Wimbledon to increase their audience by incorporating digital experiences.
Usama Al-Qassab, Marketing and Commercial Director of The All England Club, stated that the collaboration with IBM aims to provide additional experiences to Wimbledon fans worldwide. He mentioned that the tournament will introduce new features for the digital platforms, including AI technology, to help fans gain more insight into the singles draw and access commentary on a wider variety of matches through match highlights videos.
Wimbledon is the most prestigious tennis championship in the world, and this year’s event will start on July 3, with the final on July 16. The tournament is 146 years old and takes place in London. The Australian Open is another major tennis tournament that has offered digital experiences to fans. In January last year, it teamed up with Decentraland to enable fans to watch matches and attend the main stadium, Rod Laver Arena, virtually.
The virtual reality platform also released a collection of 6,776 non-fungible tokens called “Art Ball NFTs.” Each digital collectible represented a winning shot from all matches from the 2022 championship. Wimbledon’s AI-powered features are expected to provide fans with a more engaging and insightful experience, and could also help the tournament to attract a wider audience.