As Wimbledon unfolds, the world’s attention naturally turns to the rivalries, upsets and championship contests. But behind every match lies an increasingly sophisticated layer of technology that is reshaping the way tennis is watched, analyzed and monetized.
AI has accelerated the evolution of sports data from a back-office resource to a strategic business asset. Today, millions of real-time data points power everything from stream enhancements and personalized fan experiences to training analytics and commercial partnerships. As governing bodies and technology companies continue to invest in richer datasets, the focus is shifting beyond collecting information to making sense of it and determining who will benefit.
This change is also changing the economics of the sport. Broadcast rights have long defined the business of professional tennis, but official data rights are becoming an increasingly valuable asset in their own right. As AI enables richer storytelling, predictive insights and more personalized viewing experiences, the commercial value of live sports data is expanding beyond traditional applications, creating new opportunities for media companies, sponsors, technology providers and rights holders alike.
ABOUT Patrick Mostboecksenior vice president of fan engagement at Sportradar, that transformation is just the beginning. While sports data is often associated with betting, he argues that its biggest opportunity lies in making tennis more attractive and accessible to fans, creating new value for broadcasters, rights holders and athletes. Looking to the future, he believes AI will fundamentally change the way audiences experience live matches through predictive insights, personalized content and augmented streams that add real-time context.
The Observer spoke to Mostboeck about how the commercial value of tennis data has evolved, why official data rights are becoming increasingly strategic, and where AI-powered fan engagement is headed next. It also reveals why one of the sport’s oldest institutions has become an unlikely proving ground for some of its newest technologies – and why tennis’ next chapter may be determined as much by the data as by what happens on the court.
Wimbledon is often seen as one of the institutions most associated with tennis tradition. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly data-driven. How has the commercial value of tennis data changed over the past decade, and what role does AI play in that evolution?
If you look back over the last decade, I think sports data has evolved quite a bit in tennis. If we look back at the beginning of this decade, sports data was mostly about standings and schedules – really the most basic data points. Gradually, over the past two years, it has evolved into an engagement tool. It has evolved into a vehicle for further commercialization.
A key part of this transition has been that, as more and more data points have been collected, there has also been a need to make sense of those data points. This is clearly where artificial intelligence plays a big role, because if you’re collecting thousands of data points every second, it’s simply not possible for a human (being) or the human eye to collect those data points, but then make sense of them.
Here, clearly, AI plays a big role in processing this data, creating a story from these data points and then sharing it.
Artificial intelligence is making it possible to generate richer insights from matches than traditional statistics ever could. What kinds of information are being captured or extracted now that were simply not possible a few years ago?
I think it’s all kinds of data points, but to give you some specific examples, I think one thing that’s particularly interesting to us, of course, is, on the one hand, where the players are positioned on the field, but also where exactly the ball is landing.
This seems like a very trivial thing, but being extremely precise and detailed (about it) is something that I think the tennis world has been working on for many, many years. Now you see the development that, for most tournaments, large parts of the judging (process) are happening without human intervention.
The information about where the ball lands and where the players are positioned obviously gives us additional opportunities to use this for fan engagement applications, coaching analytics applications and so on and so forth.
Live sports data has become a valuable asset in its own right. Why is tennis data so commercially important and who ultimately benefits from this value? Is it the tournaments, the governing bodies, the broadcasters, the technology providers or the fans?
For me personally, the two most important parties are always the fans on the one hand and the athletes on the other, because they are the only ones without whom the entire ecosystem cannot live and breathe. Based on these two stakeholders, I think you can clearly see that fans appreciate the extra depth of information and the extra context.
Using this additional depth of data within tennis really serves (fan) education. It really serves the informational needs of the fans so that ultimately the fan is more engaged, spends more time with the sport of tennis and ultimately results in merchandising opportunities. And it’s clear – and it’s kind of a vicious circle here – the more fans engage with the sport, the more they end up spending on the sport.
Here, on equal terms, players participate. This is where tournaments take part. The media industry also participates here, because the media and entertainment industry can only create a good product if there is great interest from fans. So it all comes together, but definitely the fans are at the center of the picture for me.
Looking ahead, do you see AI creating entirely new commercial opportunities around tennis, whether through personalized viewing experiences, new media products or different forms of fan engagement?
The biggest opportunity is already here and not just in the not-too-distant future: enhancing the way fans see and experience the sport of tennis. It is now possible to increase streaming, which is usually how most fans consume tennis.
From a sports perspective, we have created a product called 4Sight, which adds to the sport of tennis. More specifically, it provides additional overlays of contextual data live on the stream, explaining what is happening during a match, why a specific player is on track to win, why another player is likely to lose, and how all of this data comes together to provide that context.
I think this, on the one hand, gives us the opportunity to create a more compelling entertainment product. And this ultimately results in fans staying engaged for longer.
Wimbledon is synonymous with heritage, while AI represents constant innovation. How do you see tennis balancing these two identities without losing what makes the sport special?
For me personally, they are doing a great job of maintaining that exact balance. Every year, when I see the way the grounds of Wimbledon are presented and how minimal the branding is, but also the impact that some of the brands are able to achieve through that branding – and, at the same time, all the content creation and value creation in and around the tournament – I think it’s a good example of where we still have potential and opportunities for growth.
I think a lot of this commercialization can still be tied to additional, deeper data points. Specifically, (it’s about) how brands, companies and different stakeholders relate to the game, find opportunities within it and tell stories through it. This is still one of the great opportunities within the sport. All of us who work in this industry can contribute by working closely together to explore this opportunity.
Many people immediately associate sports data with betting, but its applications extend far beyond that. Beyond betting, where do you think AI-powered tennis data will create the most value over the next five years?
The two most immediate use cases are clearly, first, the media and entertainment space. Sports data has a great opportunity to enrich and improve tennis broadcasting and broadcasting. If you look at the current landscape of how tennis is broadcast, I think there is still a significant opportunity, both for traditional players and new players, to improve the viewing experience.
I think that’s one of the beauties of the sport of tennis. Tennis really has the potential to be one of those truly global sports because, if you look at the top 20 or 50 players, you will find so many different nationalities represented that there is interest in the sport in almost all parts of the world.
The second area I would highlight is coaching and analytics. It is clear that one of the main actors, and I mentioned this before, are the players themselves, the athletes. For them, understanding the data behind their performance and performance analysis, and having tools to help interpret that information, is a natural next step in this development.
Broadcast rights have long been considered the crown jewel of sports media. Can data rights become just as strategic?
The answer is absolutely yes. I think that, in some ways, we are already on the way to creating these additional commercial opportunities, but for others, we may not yet know what is possible. Personalizing the fan experience is an important opportunity. But if you think about commercialization through advertising and sponsorship, I think the combination of these data points – or additional depth of data – with brands and the ability to advertise at the right contextual moment, is a significant opportunity. This is really where sports data, on the one hand, and commercialization, on the other, come together to create additional benefits.
I think these two areas play well alongside each other. It is always difficult to predict how their respective values will develop. Data rights, and products developed from data, have a clear path for growth, as do media rights. So from the perspective of the rights holders – and from the perspective of the sport – I think there is a clear benefit to developing both of these areas side by side.
If we’re having this conversation again five years from now, what do you think will have changed most dramatically about the business of tennis because of AI?
A crystal ball is always difficult, of course, but I would argue that predictive abilities will become more and more standard across sports, and likely within tennis in particular. At the moment, most of the data we talk about is based on past events or the most recent events.
I could imagine a future where a lot more of the streaming and entertainment landscape will shift to predictive insights—what’s going to happen in the next minute, what’s going to happen in the next five minutes—and that data is then used in all kinds of entertainment applications. Whether it’s sports betting, sports media, or training apps, I think this kind of predictive data can be quite useful.
