Wit the ATP World Title being decided last weekend with Novak Djokovic defeating Roger Federer, it’s a good time to look back at how the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) aims to improve social media engagement through its recently launched three year partnership with Infosys.
Infosys plans to offer viewers detailed stats on player performance to improve their viewing experience. Tennis does not have a big data platform, but this partnership will change that by allowing fans to predict match outcomes and dive deeper into data driven patterns of the sport.
“TV fans are also engaged but it’s a one-way communication between the TV and them, they can’t communicate back,” Mohamed Anis, head of energy and services for Europe at Infoysys said. “Whereas on social media we are making them get more engaged.
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Infosys provides the ATP with a customized version of its Information Platform. The Infosys Information Platform delivers historical data from ATP tennis matches and five years’ worth of Hawkeye replay data. Viewers and the media will gain access to mix real-time data. For example, fans will be able to compare the serves of different players.
Players can also use the data to their advantage by seeing the displayed information on their performances. Another feature of the platform is its flexibility to deploy in the cloud with platforms like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.
With the deal Infosys is also managing two key ATP platforms. The first being ATP Scores & Stats Centre, which Infosys believes will “revolutionise engagement with tennis fans by providing unprecedented insights about every tournament, every match and every point”.
The second platform that Infosys will manage is the the ATP Player Zone, a platform for players to stay connected to ATP events and tournaments.
With this new technology in the tennis world, ATP hopes the sport will grow with its followers as well as through its tournament operations via ticket sales, merchandizing opportunities, and other revenue streams. This shows the ATP wants to make sure it can convert physical fans into digital ones too.
Dr. Vishal Sikka, Chief Executive Officer, Infosys, said, “As a fan personally of tennis, it is really exciting to think about how we can invent great new and engaging experiences for fans. Great experiences for tennis fans is what ATP has always stood for, and we can now take this to even greater heights with our work together. Fans will soon have the opportunity to get completely immersed in the action, and feel the passion and intensity in every match, and more. This partnership will enable us to bring new experiences in new ways to fans worldwide and will also serve to inform many new types of consumer engagements in other walks of life.”