{"id":16442,"date":"2016-11-17T20:38:13","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T01:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/wimbledon-technology-meets-tradition\/"},"modified":"2016-11-17T20:38:13","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T01:38:13","slug":"wimbledon-technology-meets-tradition","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/wimbledon-technology-meets-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Wimbledon: Technology Meets Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Internet of Things (IoT) has already made a huge impact on the world of sports and personal fitness.\u00a0 Wearable activity trackers offered by a host of companies can track everything from steps taken to heart rate to sleep hours and quality. \u00a0In 2012, tennis players gained access to IoT data and tracking through the introduction of Babolat Play, a connected tennis racket\u00a0that uses an accelerometer and a gyroscope to record and transfer data about power, endurance, and technique to a phone, tablet, or computer\u00a0[1]. \u00a0As technology continues to gain a strong foothold in this traditional sport, it\u2019s no surprise that the Grand Slam tournaments are looking to make the IoT work for them as well.<\/p>\n

A Brief Context and History of Technology at Wimbledon<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Grand Slams (Wimbledon, the French Open, the Australian Open, and the US Open) are the four most important annual professional tennis tournaments.\u00a0 Of these, Wimbledon (est. 1877) is the oldest and widely considered to be the most prestigious\u00a0[2].\u00a0 Wimbledon is also known for respecting tradition: it still requires players to wear all white for matches, it waited 14 years to make the switch from white to yellow tennis balls (yellow balls were first introduced in 1972 for easier TV viewing), and it is the only Grand Slam to still use grass courts.\u00a0 However, despite dedication to tradition, Wimbledon does have a history of integrating technology into tournament operations.\u00a0 It partnered with IBM in 1991 to introduce radar technology that measures ball speed, and in 2006 it adopted Hawk-Eye, which uses 10 cameras to pinpoint where the ball hit the ground, allowing players to \u201cchallenge\u201d line calls they believe to be incorrect\u00a0[3].<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,<\/a><\/p>\n

Recent Advances<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2016, Wimbledon faced a particularly challenging situation: \u201cDuring Wimbledon fortnight, sports fans would be spoilt for choice: in addition to the tennis, they could watch three international cricket matches, two Formula One Grand Prix, nine stages of the Tour de France, and nine crucial matches in the Euro 2016 football championship\u201d\u00a0[4].\u00a0 In response to this challenge, Wimbledon partnered with IBM to introduce new technologies to is repertoire to help better connect with fans. \u00a0\u00a0A primary concern for Wimbledon is generating content that resonates with its audience, which is becoming increasingly difficult to track as social media activity continues to grow and become more complex.\u00a0 While IBM developed several solutions, including using machine learning techniques to generate valuable information about what content will best resonate with fans by reading social media posts, this post will focus on one particular solution: cameras that read your facial expressions\u00a0[4].<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you’re lucky enough to get a ticket to this year’s Wimbledon tennis <\/strong>championships, be prepared to be scanned by a supercomputer\u201d\u00a0[5]<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the first time, the 2016 Wimbledon tournament featured connected cameras that sent images to IBM\u2019s Watson, which analyzed the images to determine fan emotions. So why is Wimbledon taking this dramatic step? At first glance, the information gathered from this technology seems like nothing but a novelty \u2013 sure, it\u2019s fun to know who the majority of the crowd is rooting for during a particular match, but can that information actually be used to create and capture value? Although Wimbledon has been quiet about this project, the consensus is that they are looking to use this technology to sell more merchandise and market future tournaments [6].<\/p>\n

\"tumblr_l4rqcvm9uf1qbb5axo1_1280\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ace or Double Fault? <\/strong><\/p>\n

First, regarding marketing future tournaments, Wimbledon has no problem selling out tickets.\u00a0 In fact, there are numerous multi-page blog posts that walk aspiring ticket owners through the ins-and-outs of navigating ticket purchasing (one example here<\/a>), and the line to get day-of tickets is so famous\/infamous it\u2019s not a \u201cqueue\u201d it\u2019s The (capital) Queue.\u00a0 Additionally, data about tournament attendee player preferences would not give tournament directors insight into the preferences of the broader tennis community.\u00a0 Yes, plenty avid fans travel to Wimbledon, but the crowd will always be disproportionately British and presumably will\u00a0have a stronger preference for British players.<\/p>\n

Second, regarding merchandise sales, the connection between selling branded Wimbledon merchandise and knowing preferred players seems distant, particularly because Wimbledon doesn’t generally sell sponsored merchandise: \u201cOne of the Club’s key objectives is to enhance the unique character and image of The Championships by keeping our courts and grounds relatively free of commercial sponsorship and product placement, hence the lack of overt advertising around the Grounds\u201d [7].<\/p>\n

It is without question cool that Wimbledon can know who the crowd prefers in a close match, and that information would\u00a0no doubt be entertaining for viewers at home.\u00a0 But can they capture that entertainment value?\u00a0 Given the potential legal challenges and uncertain connection to revenue, I believe their efforts are better spent elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\"wimble-queue_2951255k\"<\/a><\/p>\n

796 Words<\/p>\n

[1] “Babolat Play,” [Online]. Available: http:\/\/en.babolatplay.com\/play#. [Accessed 13 November 2016].
\n[2] “Wimbledon History,” [Online]. Available: http:\/\/www.wimbledon.com\/en_GB\/atoz\/history.html. [Accessed 13 November 2016].
\n[3] D. Snelling, “WIMBLEDON SPECIAL: How technology is changing the face of tennis,” [Online]. Available: http:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/entertainment\/gaming\/484242\/WIMBLEDON-SPECIAL-How-technology-is-changing-the-face-of-tennis. [Accessed 13 November 2016].
\n[4] “Wimbledon 2016: In pursuit of greatness with cognitive and cloud technologies,” [Online]. Available: http:\/\/ecc.ibm.com\/case-study\/us-en\/ECCF-WWC12371USEN. [Accessed 13 November 2016].
\n[5] M. Wall, “How Wimbledon will use IBM’s Watson to serve up data,” BBC, 21 June 2016. [Online]. Available: http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/business-36574406. [Accessed November13 2016].
\n[6] H. Byrne, Outsell, 28 July 2016. [Online]. Available: https:\/\/www.outsellinc.com\/blog\/tennis-turbulence-are-more-just-party-tricks-ibms-watson. [Accessed 13 November 2016].
\n[7] “Ambush Marketing,” Wimbledon, [Online]. Available: http:\/\/www.wimbledon.com\/en_GB\/atoz\/ambush_marketing.html. [Accessed 16 November 2016].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How the world\u2019s oldest tennis tournament is going modern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1983,"featured_media":16471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[2019,1781],"class_list":["post-16442","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet-of-things","category-tennis"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/digitization-challenge-2016\/","yoast_head":"\nWimbledon: Technology Meets Tradition - Technology and Operations Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/wimbledon-technology-meets-tradition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wimbledon: Technology Meets Tradition - 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