The last week of June is looming and the strawberries are ripening, so it can mean only one thing; Wimbledon fortnight is on its way, and IBM and The All England Lawn Tennis Club have served up a raft of new technologies marking the next phase in the tournament’s digital transformation.
New for 2016 is an Apple TV app for Wimbledon developed by IBM Interactive Experience that will enable fans to engage with Wimbledon in the comfort of their own homes. Users will be able to browse realtime scores, watch Wimbledon’s studio show, Live@Wimbledon, listen to three live radio channels, and delve through all of Wimbledon’s video and photo content, bringing the 2016 Wimbledon experience into their homes in the truest sense.
There are also new Wimbledon smartphone apps for iOS and Android, responsive to all screen sizes to provide multi-content personalised feeds for fans at home and on the move.
The new apps also provide the first experience for visitors onsite at Wimbledon, including personalised messaging, and the opportunity to create their own Wimbledon Story, allowing fans to capture and share their unforgettable Wimbledon experiences with the global community.
Also new this year is a Cognitive Command Centre, built using IBM’s Watson and hybrid cloud technologies. The solution will ingest feeds across multiple social media channels to automatically understand, reason and learn what are the most relevant and emerging topics of conversation as they relate to Wimbledon, as well as other major sporting events, providing those insights to the digital editorial team.
By identifying common topics of interest, IBM claims it can help Wimbledon identify opportunities to better serve related articles, posts and images. For example, the Cognitive Command Centre could identify emerging conversations around a Swiss football game at the same time as a peak in interest around a moment in a Roger Federer match. Using these types of insight, Wimbledon will be able to make rapid content decisions to engage and inform sports fans during a summer filled with numerous major sporting events.
“We are proud to be continuing to evolve and develop our digital strategy, further enhancing the Wimbledon platforms to ensure that they are the incomparable Wimbledon destination for millions of fans around the world. As our content vies for attention in an increasingly competitive sporting landscape, IBM’s technology innovations are key to maintaining our prominence in the collective mind of our global fan base,” said Mick Desmond, commercial and media director at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.
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