Wimbledon & IBM enhance fan and player engagement

The All England Club, Wimbledon, and IBM have joined forces to bring tennis fans closer to The Championships through a number of innovations that will make use of IBM cloud computing, analytics, mobile, social and security technologies.

The All England Club (AELTC) is a London-based tennis and croquet club founded in 1868 that is best known as the venue for the Wimbledon Championships. This year’s Championships, which just kicked off, will be hosted from 29 June to 12 July 2015.

As part of its digital strategy, AELTC has partnered up with IT consulting firm IBM. By leveraging IBM’s latest cloud computing, analytics, mobile, social and security technologies, AELTC will be able to bring its fans closer to the game by granting them access to real-time live scoring, courtside action and insights.

The Championships 2015 will be powered by the following IBM innovations:

• Redesigned wimbledon.com & mobile apps: IBM has refined the website and mobile app, with real-time live scores integrated alongside live and on-demand video, infographics and exclusive insights, to provide the fans an experience that is ‘the next best thing to being there.’
• IBM Big Data Analytics and Watson power breaking match stats & insights: By using IBM’s analytics, Wimbledon staff will be able to quickly surface information and insights in order to share insights with fans via social media and the Wimbledon digital platforms.
• Personalised player website: IBM designed a website for players with personalised information about their match schedules, reports and historical insights about other players, as well as real-time updates about the tournament information.
• wimbledon.com social engagement: The Social Media Analytics from IBM allows Wimbledon Social Command Centre to identify the most influential voices around Wimbledon and tennis as well as the most ‘talked about’ topics in order for them to proactively target its social communications.
• Cyber security: During The Championships, IBM will detect and block any suspicious events, providing AELTC a unified view of all security events, and apply real time analytics to rapidly identify and address potential attacks.

“With help from IBM, we are providing a world class digital experience with the best real time content to fans of The Championships. This allows them to get closer to all the action across all of Wimbledon’s 19 courts, no matter where they are, or what device they’re using,” explains Mick Desmond, Commercial & Media Director at the AELTC.

Sam Seddon, Wimbledon Client & Programme Executive at IBM, adds: “Serving up uninterrupted access to real-time Wimbledon match records and trends allows us to showcase the benefits of delivering insights at speed. For Wimbledon, this capability will allow them to enrich the fan experience by providing a comprehensive and compelling digital platform featuring instant access to video, scores, articles, interviews and breaking tournament news.”