How IBM Watson AI Enhanced Wimbledon 2017

Helping Wimbledon in their pursuit of greatness
For 28 years IBM has been the official supplier of Information Technology and consultant to the All England Club and The Championships, Wimbledon.

By analysing millions of data points and thousands of pages of unstructured text you can understand, reason and learn what it takes to pursue greatness within a sporting arena.

For a business wanting to understand how to deliver a great customer experience or differentiate their services they must look beyond pure historic structured data to the vast volumes of unstructured data created every day.

IBM's cognitive and cloud solutions businesses can understand and respond to their customer needs in ways never possible before.

This year IBM has used these technologies to determine what makes a great Wimbledon Champion (watch video above).

How Wimbledon used IBM Watson AI to power highlights, analytics and enriched fan experiences
IBM Watson analyzed what it really takes to make a great Wimbledon champion, based on new insights that are provoking social media discussion among fans. (Join the conversation on Twitter by using the hashtag #WhatMakesGreat)

Key Points:

• Watson helped Wimbledon deliver new levels of engagement for ticket holders and 70 million online fans
• Watson-powered real time match reports rivaled global outlets in breaking news and uncovering player insights
• Watson Discovery Service used 22 years of unstructured data to analyze an estimated 53,713,514 tennis data points
• A voice-activated, Watson-powered digital assistant “Fred,” helped attendees find their way around the venue

In the pursuit of defining what makes a great champion, IBM brought the full capabilities of Watson platform – using 22 years of unstructured data. Watson Discovery Service was used to analyze an estimated 53,713,514 tennis data points to date, captured since 1990.

During the Championships, this information was used to spark debate on social channels like Twitter, Facebook and the Telegraph.co.uk.

Meanwhile, Watson’s Personality Insights API helped uncover player traits and behaviors based on previous player interviews etc. All of this analysis surfaces undiscovered insights designed to inspire online engagement among experts, sports commentators and fans.

Before the matches got underway, new insights began driving conversation among tennis experts. For example, Watson’s analysis highlighted new information about a female player’s service game. Using unstructured data, Watson was able to dig deeper and reveal how the player’s serve was improving every year and was the driving force to her becoming a Wimbledon champion.

Other ways that IBM technology is powering Wimbledon 2017
This year’s all new Watson-enabled bot, “Ask Fred,” reinvented how guests experience Wimbledon. Named after the late and great Fred Perry, the cognitive assistant answered a wide range of questions from fans visiting the event.

The mobile app enriched the fan experience by serving up information on dining options, feature a natural language interface and provides an interactive map of the venue. The all-new assistant was available to all Wimbledon visitors – within the Official Apps for mobile and tablet.

Through the Wimbledon IBM SlamTracker with Cognitive Keys to the Match, fans also had an unprecedented level of analysis, insight and engagement as matches unfolded. Built with mobile devices in mind, the cross platform application delivered real-time scores, stats and insights for all matches in progress. As well as allowing fans to research player tactics in a pre-match environment.

Source: IBM