Ever wondered how stats and data appear in double-quick time during an intense match on the Centre Court?
The secret lies deep on the bottom floor of the cast broadcast centre at the All England Club, where a big team of IBM data analysts are feeding the information that appears on our TV, screen and phones.
Here is your guide to what is on offer for Wimbledon 2025, with huge innovations coming into play for this year’s Championships.
WIMBLEDON APP
This is the platform where the IBM team see their data come to life, with live scores and in-match statistics now complemented by a new ‘Match Chat’ feature that is proving to be hugely popular in 2025.
The rapid developments in AI technology have been fully embraced by Wimbledon and the IBM team, with ‘Match Chat’ their flagship new feature that can be found on the tournament app and the website.
This allows fans to engage with the assistant using either pre-written prompts or their own questions during a match.
So if you want to know how many aces a player has hit in the match you are watching, you can type that into the AI-driven agents that are trained on the Wimbledon editorial style and the language of tennis.
PREDICTING THE WINNER
Win predictors have become a popular talking point in tennis over recent years and now fans get their own version on the Wimbledon app.
Pre-match predictions over who will win a match always create debate and now tennis fans can have a result projector that changes over the course of the ebb and flow of a match.
Kevin Farrar, IBM’s Head of Sport Partnerships for Wimbledon, told us that fans are open to having a second screen in their hand giving them information that can enhance their viewing and the ‘Match Chat’ and win projector options are proving to be big hits with fans this year.
SLAM TRACKER
Fans are used to seeing stats and data pop up on their TV screens, but now they can also have it on their phones.
The number of double faults, aces, percentages of service points won and lost and break point analysis are all available in this section of the Wimbledon app and website.
There is often a debate over the ‘Unforced Errors’ analysis, with some observers suggesting the verdict on a mistake that had not been forced by an opponent is a little harsh.
Yet the accuracy of these decisions is more authentic as they are being made by keen tennis fans who have played the game to a high level, as they need to be a county-level tennis player or better to land a role in the IBM team at Wimbledon.
PLAYERS GET EVEN MORE
The top players in the game crave information and statistical data that will help them take their game to the next level and, crucially, give them insight into their opponents.
Via an exclusive section on the Wimbledon app that is not open to the public, players can find out a treasure trove of data about their last match and areas they could look to improve.
They are also able to access data revealing where their opponents place their serves and where they like to return a ball on pressure points.
This can be crucial on break points or when a match gets tight in the closing stages, with any edge they can gain on court so crucial at the top end of the sport.
WHAT COMES NEXT?
Technology is changing so many aspects of our lives, with the AI explosion likely to ensure the rapid changes we have seen in recent months will continue at a pace.
Human line judges have been replaced by the Hawk-Eye line-calling system for 2025 and that huge change is only the beginning of the technological transformation in our sport.”
The AI innovations on the Wimbledon phone app are being brilliantly executed by the IBM team at Wimbledon and the huge popularity of the platform highlights how modern sports fans are open to looking at more than one screen when consuming a sporting event.