{"id":753300,"date":"2026-07-09T21:11:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T21:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/753300\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T21:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T21:11:20","slug":"750-million-fans-and-2-7-million-data-points-how-ibms-ai-powers-wimbledon-from-hidden-court-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/753300\/","title":{"rendered":"750\u00a0million\u00a0fans\u00a0and\u00a02.7 million data points: How\u00a0IBM\u2019s AI powers\u00a0Wimbledon\u00a0from\u00a0hidden \u2018Court\u00a019\u2019\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard\u2019s serve was clocked at 153 mph last summer\u2014the fastest in Wimbledon history\u2014the number flashed on the scoreboard before the ball had stopped bouncing. That instant readout traces back to 1991, when IBM<\/a> first brought serve-speed radar to the Championships, planting radar guns behind the baselines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thirty-six years later,\u00a0IBM<\/a>\u00a0remains\u00a0Wimbledon\u2019s technology partner, having built the\u00a0tournament\u2019s website in 1995, its app in 2009, and\u00a0first introduced AI features in 2017.\u00a0This year, the partnership was extended until\u00a02030\u00a0to carry out a new\u00a0digital\u00a0transformation plan,\u00a0designed,\u00a0in\u00a0the words of\u00a0Wimbledon\u2019s marketing and commercial director\u00a0Usama Al-Qassab,\u00a0to\u00a0\u201cengage more people in more places, more often, in more meaningful ways.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than half a million\u00a0visitors\u00a0attend\u00a0Wimbledon\u00a0over the\u00a0Grand Slam fortnight. Yet they\u2019re a\u00a0fraction\u00a0of the audience following along on its app.\u00a0Wimbledon generated\u00a0roughly 18\u00a0billion impressions across its digital channels, reaching an estimated 730 million people\u00a0in 2025, according to the\u00a0All\u00a0England Lawn\u00a0Tennis and Croquet Club.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Wimbledon\u2019s marketing and commercial director, Usama Al-Qassab.<\/p>\n

IBM<\/p>\n

In the past\u00a0year,\u00a0visits\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0official\u00a0Wimbledon\u00a0website and app\u00a0increased by over 20% and registrations to\u00a0myWimbledon\u00a0grew\u00a0by\u00a039%.\u00a0The app\u00a0operates\u00a0year-round for ticketing, player services,\u00a0and member bookings, before traffic surges during the Championships.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

IBM\u2019s\u00a0hidden\u00a0technology\u00a0hub,\u00a0nicknamed\u00a0\u201cCourt\u00a019\u201d,\u00a0lies\u00a0beneath\u00a0Wimbledon\u2019s\u00a018th\u00a0grass\u00a0court. Over the\u00a0course of the\u00a0tournament,\u00a02.7 million data\u00a0points\u2014including\u00a0ball\u00a0speed, shot placement, and momentum swings\u2014are\u00a0processed\u00a0through\u00a0the\u00a0tech\u00a0facility.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For a company like IBM, a partnership\u00a0with Wimbledon\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0just about\u00a0tennis,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a proving ground. Kameryn Stanhouse, IBM\u2019s vice president of global sports and entertainment partnerships, tells\u00a0Fortune\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a\u00a0\u201creal fear around AI\u201d\u00a0among\u00a0executives.\u00a0\u201cNot\u00a0because leaders doubt they need to adopt it, but because they know their jobs may be on the line if they roll it out\u00a0badly,\u201d she\u00a0says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stanhouse\u00a0believes\u00a0that a\u00a0visible,\u00a0high-stakes\u00a0showcase, such as\u00a0Wimbledon,\u00a0gives\u00a0IBM a way to\u00a0demonstrate\u00a0it can deploy\u00a0tech\u00a0responsibly and reliably.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ensuring\u00a0accuracy\u00a0<\/p>\n

But executive fears about AI\u00a0rollouts are\u00a0not\u00a0unfounded, both\u00a0fan sentiment and recent missteps suggest the risk is real.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A 2025 study by\u00a0Capgemini\u00a0found that 70% of sports fans want real-time match data, but more than half\u00a0worry that too much technology erodes the authenticity of watching\u00a0sport\u00a0live.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not\u00a0every rollout has landed smoothly. In 2025, Wimbledon\u2019s\u00a0300\u00a0line\u00a0judges, who\u00a0had been a fixture of the tournament for 147 years, were\u00a0replaced\u00a0with an\u00a0automated\u00a0electronic line-calling\u00a0system.\u00a0The debut was rocky: the system\u00a0missed three calls\u00a0during a\u00a0quarter-final match\u00a0and, in a separate incident,\u00a0it called \u201cfault\u201d mid-rally, forcing an umpire to intervene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tennis players have voiced their doubts.\u00a0The current fifth-ranked British player\u00a0Jack Draper has questioned the system\u2019s precision, while Emma Raducanu said she\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0fully trust it, calling some rulings \u201cdodgy\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That system\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0IBM\u2019s\u2014it runs on Sony\u2019s Hawk-Eye\u2014but the episode hangs over every conversation about handing\u00a0match-changing decisions\u00a0to a machine. IBM stresses its own features are \u201chuman-led\u201d,\u00a0with a governance layer that scores confidence and checks for bias before anything reaches a fan in real time.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a distinction Stanhouse is keen to draw,\u00a0but\u00a0for\u00a0a\u00a0fan watching a technological error derail a match,\u00a0the difference between vendors is unlikely to register.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a real fear around AI among executives. Not\u00a0because leaders doubt they need to adopt it, but because they know their jobs may be on the line if they roll it out\u00a0badly\u201d<\/p>\n

Kameryn Stanhouse, IBM\u2019s vP of global sports and entertainment partnerships<\/p>\n

For\u00a0years,\u00a0players could\u00a0challenge\u00a0a\u00a0line\u00a0judge\u2019s call. This\u00a0would be\u00a0followed by\u00a0the\u00a0crowd hushing\u00a0and\u00a0the ball\u2019s flight\u00a0being\u00a0replayed\u00a0on the big\u00a0screen,\u00a0and\u00a0it became\u00a0one\u00a0of Wimbledon\u2019s rituals. Some say the atmosphere has felt colder without it. Even IBM\u2019s\u00a0\u201cLikelihood to Win\u201d\u2014a prediction tool that\u00a0recalculates\u00a0player\u00a0odds after every point\u2014removes some of the suspense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stanhouse sees the trade-off as worthwhile, even if it\u00a0removes\u00a0some of the old theatre. \u201cFans argue less about the marginal calls and more about the tennis itself and how players are performing,\u201d she says.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sport as a proving ground for\u00a0new\u00a0tech\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wimbledon\u00a0remains\u00a0the oldest of the four Grand Slam tournaments, steeped in traditions from strawberries and cream to its all-white dress code. That heritage makes any AI rollout a delicate proposition.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n

Al-Qassab argues AI is simply a productivity tool that helps Wimbledon serve different audiences without changing the experience itself. \u201cI\u2019m not convinced that it will alienate people,\u201d he says, noting that most spectators still spend matches watching the action, only checking their phones between points. \u201cIt\u2019s balanced\u00a0really finely here and it\u2019s working very well.\u201d Whether that balance holds as its AI features expand further will be the real test.\u00a0<\/p>\n

IBM has helped reshape fan experiences at some of the world\u2019s biggest sporting events, from Wimbledon to the U.S.\u00a0Open\u00a0Golf Championships\u00a0and the Masters.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a booming business, and an increasingly crowded one. The global sports market is forecast to be worth more than $600bn by 2030, according to\u00a0consultancy Kearney,<\/a>\u00a0and IBM is far from the only technology company using sport to prove its AI works before selling it elsewhere.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more: The new CMO playbook: How marketers are balancing broader remits and tighter budgets<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Stanhouse, sport\u00a0offers something few industries can:\u00a0enormous volumes of data generated under pressure. \u201cIf the tool works during a match, under maximum scrutiny, it\u2019s already survived a harder test than most enterprise pilots ever face,\u201d Stanhouse says, adding\u00a0it\u00a0\u201cgets\u00a0executives thinking about how the technology could apply to their own businesses.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

To rebuild Wimbledon\u2019s app and website, IBM used a development accelerator it calls Bob, which migrated more than 15,000 digital assets (articles, photos, videos,\u00a0and their metadata) to a new platform. Work that would traditionally take five\u00a0specialists\u00a0months, Stanhouse says, was done by a single engineer in a\u00a0month, with the final transfer taking just 47 minutes. \u201cThat is exactly the productivity\u00a0improvement\u00a0enterprises are straining to evaluate, and Wimbledon is a rare place they can watch it\u00a0being\u00a0tested.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Stanhouse, Wimbledon makes the technology tangible. \u201cA lot of people interact with our technology every day and have no idea about it,\u201d she says. \u201cThrough the\u00a0Championships, we put IBM technology in people\u2019s hands and they\u2019re able to feel it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hyper-personalization and remote experiences are the future of\u00a0sports fan engagement, Stanhouse says.\u00a0IBM has already built a Masters app for Apple<\/a> Vision Pro, letting golf fans watch\u00a0the tournament\u00a0in a fully immersive format, and she expects tennis to follow. \u201cIt\u2019s all about\u00a0boosting\u00a0access\u00a0in a way that doesn\u2019t exist with some of these coveted events,\u201d\u00a0she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quantum computing could also have interesting applications, though IBM is yet to find a use case within sports.\u202f\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the consistent encroachment of technology into the sporting field, greater personalization, and more powerful prediction tools, the unpredictable nature of sports is what keeps fans engaged. \u201cNo one will ever really know who is going to win. Somebody could wake up with a crick in their neck and can\u2019t serve the way they used to\u201d Stanhouse says.\u201d No technology will ever be an absolute in sports. But that\u2019s why we love it, right?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard\u2019s serve was clocked at 153 mph last summer\u2014the fastest in Wimbledon history\u2014the number flashed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[11357,558,322989,99,428,96],"class_list":["post-753300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-app","tag-ibm","tag-londonarticles","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-wimbledon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}