I hope that if there’s ever a sports highlight package of me, the generative AI that's adding commentary points out my can-do spirit early on. Because eventually, it’ll say things like, "Has he even played this sport before?" and "I think he’s crying." -- SBJ's Ethan Joyce
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IBM’s plans to raise the bar on AI commentary at the All England Club
A little more than two months after its AI commentary venture with the Masters, IBM is attempting to enhance the presentation of another international sporting hallmark: Wimbledon.
IBM is providing generative commentary for video highlights on the Wimbledon app and website. The commentary is developed by IBM watsonx, the company’s enterprise-ready AI, and will be featured throughout the championship event, with main draw running from July 3-16 (qualifying matches started this week).
Simply put, this is an attempt to maximize content, Noah Syken, IBM’s VP/sports and entertainment partnerships, tells SBJ Tech. “It’s about driving more immersive experiences and harvesting more value from the data and content that Wimbledon has,” he said. “It’s great that you have all this tennis content, but if you can’t actually present it to fans in a way that is useful to them, compelling to them -- and ideally you could monetize -- then what’s the point of having it?”
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club has 18 tennis courts for championship usage. With 128 men’s and women’s competitors apiece in singles play, plus the additional doubles participants, that adds up to a ton of missed opportunities.
‘Mastering’ the sport-specific nuances
Having the Masters experience in such close calendar proximity became helpful to Wimbledon in a number of ways, Syken said. IBM learned more about the nuances of specific sports and navigating preferences, including those of event organizers. An example of that could be the addition of certain venue-specific phrases, like using “Centre Court” for Wimbledon instead of something more generic, like the main court.
Plus, even though the Masters and Wimbledon focus on different sports, there is a beneficial foundation created for IBM watsonx to build on.
As far as teaching the specific sport, though, it’s a ground-up process. For tennis, that starts with the different points, how games and sets build into the wins and losses. The commentary has been taught to focus on important moments, such as break points, as in-match events to build commentary around.
The verbal output, Syken said, is learned for months and then tuned for months. Errors are a necessary part of the training, with the idea being that those get ironed out before air time. The commentary is developed and laid over the work of clipping services. It can take into account an increase in crowd volume thanks to acoustical recognition.
IBM can also make real-time adjustment if necessary. Success can be seen through stats like average time on-site for viewers, number of unique visitors to the website or app, or number of highlight packages shared via social media. Wimbledon will also feature the IBM AI Draw Analysis, which is a metric to rate a player’s path to their final.
“There’s a lot of content being created in sports, whether it’s golf, tennis or any sport for that matter,” Syken said. “And the key takeaway is we heard and we felt the desire from the media producers, sports content creators, et cetera, to tap into this type of capability.”
Involvement around tech key for many 2023 SBJ Forty Under 40 honorees
Technology is weaving more and more into the daily operations for every entity in sports, and that's reflected in this year's SBJ Forty Under 40 class. We rolled out profiles for the honorees this week, and a growing number of those folks are working with tech to shape the future of our business.
Check out a few profiles below of some of those execs who are using and shaping sports tech in their careers:
- Royce Cohen, Dodgers
- Ken Gaber, Oak View Group
- Jack Groetzinger, SeatGeek
- Bo Han, Buzzer
- David Highhill, NFL
- Ben Kennedy, NASCAR
- Anmol Malhotra, Snap
- Ashley Navarra Marusak, Cisco
- Whalen Rozelle, Riot Games
- Sandeep Satish, Levy
- Dev Sethi, formerly Meta
- Morgan Sword, MLB
- Matt Wolf, NBA
- Cale Vennum, Cubs and Marquee 360
Speed reads
- A new app will be available to teams for tonight's NHL Draft thanks to a new multiyear deal with Presidio, a digital services and solutions provider.
- MLB and GameChanger have a wide-ranging, multiyear deal designed to cultivate interest and further the development of youth baseball and softball, reports SBJ's Joe Lemire.
- A focal point of a new deal between Delta and AMBSE (Falcons, Atlanta United) is the Delta Fly-Through Lanes, which is Mercedes-Benz Stadium's biometric entry option that launched during the 2022 NFL season, reports SBJ's Bret McCormick.
- Micro-betting focused sportsbook and sports media platform Betr finished a $35 million round of funding at a valuation of $300 million this week, co-led by Roger Ehrenberg’s IA Sports Ventures and Fuel Venture Capital, notes SBJ's Bill King. Co-founders Joey Levy and Jake Paul also participated in the round.
- The Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech accelerator program has added the Premier League as a strategic adviser, reports SBJ's Chris Smith.