Sports fans around the world can now access a much richer digital viewing experience, thanks to a “game-changing” generation of AI tools. Some of the most iconic brands in tennis, motorsport, golf, and more are harnessing the power of AI to deepen the fan connection, thereby creating new revenue opportunities while also attracting new sponsors and partners.
The global sports sector is projected to be worth about $680 billion by the year 2028, and future growth will be very much linked to the willingness of sports bodies to take full advantage of recent advances in AI. Two top brands have got the message: Wimbledon, the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world, and Scuderia Ferrari, the oldest and most successful Formula One team, are both working closely with IBM to better integrate AI into their platforms for fans to enjoy. These two sports are very different, yet the role AI plays in engaging their respective fan bases is similar, as Fred Baker, IBM Consulting Sports Leader, EMEA, explains:
“One of our main goals is to digitally enrich, not replace, the awesome physical product that both Wimbledon and Scuderia Ferrari have so carefully curated, for fans everywhere—and AI helps us do that. It helps bring more moments to life, faster, based on more data than ever before, and in more meaningful and personalized ways for consumers to enjoy—while still preserving that precious asset that is these iconic sporting properties. The goal is to elevate both the quality of the live viewing product, and amplify the number of people who get to enjoy it in a meaningful, authentic way.”
The most recent Wimbledon finals at the All England Lawn Tennis Club ended with a thrilling match which saw underdog Jannik Sinner emerge victorious over two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the Gentlemen’s singles. While in the Ladies’ singles, Iga Świątek won her first Wimbledon title over Amanda Anisimova. This nail-biting action was further enhanced on the tournament app and site by new AI features, such as Match Chat and Live Likelihood to Win. Both were integrated into the Wimbledon app and powered by the IBM watsonx platform, harnessing agentic and generative AI to take the digital experience to the next level.
IBM has been partnering with the All England Lawn Tennis Club for more than three decades as the Official Information Technology Partner, as IBM Head of Sport Partnerships, EMEA, Kevin Farrar explains:
“IBM partners with The Championships, Wimbledon to help engage a global fan base in innovative and exciting new ways through their digital platforms. A larger, more engaged global audience translates to increased revenue opportunities through ticket sales, merchandise, sponsorships, media rights and more. Wimbledon is a fantastic showcase for IBM’s capabilities—the same capabilities we use with our clients around the globe to help them with their own business challenges and ambitions.”
During Wimbledon this year, fans were able to use IBM’s AI Assistant Match Chat to obtain answers to their questions in real-time. Underpinned by the agentic AI platform watsonx Orchestrate, fans could receive data-driven insights and analysis during and after a live singles match. With the new Live Likelihood to Win feature, fans received a projected win percentage before each match, and then could see how that projection changed during the live event, based on several data points and inputs. Kevin Farrar argues that providing these kinds of services, with AI helping make sense of vast amounts of data, gives sports organizations a potential competitive advantage.
“Each year brings a very crowded summer of sport, with numerous sports events competing for the eyes of fans. Some of these are general sports fans, some have specific sports they follow, some love the stats, others the spectacle, tradition, and heritage of an event such as Wimbledon. Our partners want their events to rise to the surface and stand out in this crowded space. IBM’s capabilities in consulting, data, analytics, automation, and AI help them to do that.”
The AI solutions closely mirror Wimbledon’s editorial tone and voice, providing a consistent experience for fans. This is achieved by training Large Language Models using trusted data sources that reflect the right editorial style and appropriate tennis terminology. In all, the technologies rise to the occasion and serve up an “ace” for everyone to enjoy.
The same approach applies in IBM’s relationship with Scuderia Ferrari HP, where AI is being deployed to bring fans ever closer to the racetrack action. Fred Baker shares how AI has helped Scuderia Ferrari to begin to engage their broad range of fans and their varying needs and interest levels: “No matter their level of fandom, Tifosi from every corner of the globe can get their hands on any piece of information they desire—whether driver lap-time and position comparisons, interactive fastest laps, or tire strategies. You can also relive iconic Ferrari victories with AI Race Summaries, as well as analyze past car, driver, and track performances. Much of this is found in the mobile app’s all-new Race Centre—the truest example of all that is Ferrari in digital form—a unique marriage of AI, data, insight, and technical analysis, with beautiful interactions, rich imagery, video, and animation that make any fan anywhere feel like they’re part of the action.”
Many of the app features, such as interactive polls and AI race reports, bring fans closer to the team and the races. And it’s not just data and insight that AI serves up to Ferrari fans. The new technology has been leveraged to provide more content, in both English and, for the first time, Italian.
In short, AI is playing an increasingly important role in sports, engaging fans more rapidly with more meaningful, personalized and localized content. New AI-driven technologies have the unparalleled ability to crunch enormous amounts of raw data, turning this into information that has context and meaning, which then drives targeted fan insights. That, in turn, helps brands to develop new revenue streams, further monetizing those fans and thereby attracting new sponsors. It’s a virtuous circle that benefits everybody, from the fan to the players and the brand.
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