The 2015 Wimbledon Championships were a battle for hearts and minds. While players were on the courts, the team behind one of world’s highest-profile sporting events fought to “host the best tennis championships in the world – in every way, and by every metric.”
Why a Tennis Tournament Needs Data
Wimbledon only lasts two weeks, but its audience is global, and most of that audience never sets foot in the grounds. For the people following along on phones and laptops, the experience is made of scores, statistics, stories and video. The faster and richer that information is, the more reason fans have to follow the tournament on Wimbledon’s own channels rather than somewhere else.
That’s the challenge a short, high-profile event faces: it has a very small window each year to win attention, and it has to compete with every other sports story and social feed for it.
To provide players, journalists and spectators with the best experience possible, Wimbledon partnered with IBM Bluemix to turn insights into powerful narratives.
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During the two week period, 48 courtside experts captured approximately 3.4 million real-time data-points on every move and outcome. When Sam Groth hit the second-fastest serve in Wimbledon history, the information was shared with a digital audience instantly. IBM’s Sam Seddon told the BBC that “during last year’s final we were analyzing about 400 tweets a second.”
The data-driven approach served up big results: the partnership achieved 71 million visits and 542 million page views from 21.1 million unique devices.
As the 2016 Championships get underway, Wimbledon and IBM will aim to up their game and deliver an even better experience.
What the 2016 Plans Looked Like
The BBC’s 2016 preview gave a sense of how far that ambition went. IBM’s Watson platform would digest millions of conversations on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, using natural language processing to spot common topics. Wimbledon’s digital team could then use that analysis to steer people toward relevant content, for example pointing fans talking about their own country’s football team toward a tennis player of the same nationality.
On the courts, sensors and computers were set to collect about 3.2 million pieces of data from 19 courts across the fortnight, feeding live scores, fastest serves and other statistics to the website, the app and Apple TV. Fans could personalize the app to follow their favourite players, with data going back eight years.
“Social media is growing exponentially and is increasingly becoming the primary voice with which we communicate with our fans,” Alexandra Willis, Wimbledon’s head of communications, content and digital, told the BBC. Seddon was careful to keep data in its place for the players themselves: “The great players know how to understand and react to what’s happening on the court – no amount of data analytics can prepare for that.”
A Partnership That Lasted
The relationship didn’t end with Bluemix, a brand IBM has since retired. IBM says it has worked with the All England Lawn Tennis Club for more than 35 years to design, develop and deliver the Championships’ digital experience.
The tools have changed with the technology. IBM’s current Wimbledon features include Match Chat, an AI-powered assistant that answers fans’ questions about specific matches, and Live Likelihood to Win, which gives real-time, point-by-point projections of each player’s chances. IBM says Wimbledon uses its watsonx Orchestrate product to control and scale these AI features, and watsonx.data to manage the large volume of data behind them.
Technology on the Courts
Data has also changed how matches are officiated. In October 2024, the All England Club announced that line judges would disappear from Wimbledon after 147 years, replaced by electronic line calling on all courts from 2025. The BBC reported that the Australian Open and US Open had adopted electronic line calling in 2021 and 2022, leaving the French Open as the only major still using line judges.
What It Means for Brands and Events
Wimbledon’s approach holds a lesson for any organization with a short window to make an impression. Collecting data is only the first step. The value comes from turning it into something people want to read or share, quickly enough that it’s still news.
It also shows how a technology partnership can outlast any single product. The product names have changed more than once since 2015, but the goal TechPortfolio described then, giving fans and journalists better information faster, has stayed the same.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much data was collected during the 2015 Wimbledon Championships?
Over the two-week 2015 event, 48 courtside experts captured about 3.4 million real-time data points on every move and outcome, which were used to inform players, journalists and spectators.
How much social media activity did IBM analyze at Wimbledon?
IBM's Sam Seddon told the BBC that during the 2015 final, the team was analyzing about 400 tweets a second.
What results did the 2015 Wimbledon and IBM partnership achieve?
The partnership achieved 71 million visits and 542 million page views from 21.1 million unique devices.
How long has IBM worked with Wimbledon?
IBM says it has worked with the All England Lawn Tennis Club for more than 35 years on the Championships' digital experience. Its current features include Match Chat and Live Likelihood to Win.
When did Wimbledon replace line judges?
In October 2024, the All England Club announced that line judges would be replaced by electronic line calling on all courts from 2025, ending a role that had lasted 147 years at Wimbledon.