Wimbledon and IBM Introduce New AI-Powered Fan Experiences and Modernized Digital Platforms for The Championships 2026
WIMBLEDON, June 22, 2026 /CNW/ -- The All England Lawn Tennis Club and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new and enhanced digital fan features coming to The Championships, Wimbledon in 2026. The watsonx AI-powered capabilities are available on the Wimbledon app and wimbledon.com, which have been fully modernised and redesigned to provide a seamless and personalised experience to millions of global tennis fans during The Championships. Pairing fan-facing innovation with operational transformation, IBM and the All England Club are creating a digital foundation to deeply engage the next generation of tennis fans.
New AI Features Bring the Match to Life for Global Fans
The all-new Key Moments tool builds on the popular live Likelihood to Win feature, which continuously calculates each player's probability of victory based on a comprehensive, AI-powered analysis of current and historical statistics, expert opinion and match momentum. Key Moments provides additional, richer information, explaining which plays influence the direction of a match and why.
Available for each gentlemen's and ladies' singles match, Key Moments complements the Likelihood to Win probability model, offering greater clarity on the AI reasoning and helping fans better understand the momentum swings that define each contest.
The enhanced Match Chat is an AI assistant that acts as an interactive companion for fans during a match. Rather than searching through statistics or navigating multiple screens, fans can use natural language and free text prompts to ask a question, such as: "What has happened in the match so far?"
Match Chat provides instant, conversational style responses – with some replies now including relevant photos and video for added context – sourced from an expanded set of live match data, analysis and historical performance information. Built on watsonx Orchestrate, Match Chat leverages a collection of AI agents and fit-for-purpose models, trained on Wimbledon's editorial style and the language of tennis.
A New Digital Platform, Built with IBM Bob
These fan-facing innovations are powered by a comprehensive modernisation of Wimbledon's digital platforms. Informed by data analysis and research into how the range of fans, players, broadcasters, media and more engage with Wimbledon's digital ecosystem, the outcome is a redesigned experience which utilises improved data architecture, and which provides more streamlined user journeys and tailored experiences for audiences.
Among the most significant outcomes was the extraction of Wimbledon's content archive to a new architecture, including more than 15,000 digital assets such as articles, videos, photographs, and the metadata relationships connecting them.
IBM Bob, an AI-powered development accelerator, was used to build a knowledge graph mapping content relationships and develop AI-driven workflows that translated the entire structure into the new platform. As a result, a mapping project that could traditionally require a team of four to five IBM specialists working for months was completed by a single engineer within 4 weeks, with the targeted 15,000 assets extracted in just 47 minutes. 1
"It's our priority every year to remain at the pinnacle of sport and deliver the best possible guest experience of The Championships – both to those walking through the gates of Wimbledon and the hundreds of millions following the action digitally around the world," added Usama Al-Qassab, Marketing and Commercial Director at the All England Club. "Our technology partnership with IBM enables us to do just that, delivering meaningful experiences which harness the latest innovations to create richer ways to engage, inform and excite our global audiences."
"Our partnership with the All England Club extends far beyond delivering match scores and statistics for the website and app," says Jonathan Adashek, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications at IBM. "The new fan experiences, combined with the modernization of Wimbledon's platforms using IBM watsonx and IBM Bob, are an example of how organizations can use AI not only to deepen engagement, but also to accelerate innovation and unlock new levels of operational efficiency."
From the launch of the Wimbledon website in 1995 and the mobile application in 2009, to the first integration of enhanced AI-powered solutions in 2017, IBM and the All England Lawn Tennis Club have partnered for more than 35 years to make The Championships more accessible and engaging. In 2025, AELTC reports these efforts contributed to a 16% year-on-year increase in engagement across all platforms, with a 39% growth in those registered to myWIMBLEDON in the past year.
The Championships, Wimbledon will run from Monday 29 June – Sunday 12 July 2026. Fans can access these, and other features, via the IBM Slamtracker which is available on the Wimbledon App and on wimbledon.com.
1 Actual results shown. Response times can be influenced by the operating system, hardware and software configuration and connectivity. Individual results may vary.
About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.
About Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon, is the oldest of the four tennis Grand Slams and the only one played on grass. Managed by The All England Lawn Tennis Club and staged on the AELTC Grounds, Wimbledon has evolved from its origins as a private members' croquet club in 1868, to one of the world's biggest annual sporting events and one of the most well-respected brands in sport. Visit www.wimbledon.com and follow us @wimbledon on all major social media platforms.
Media contact:
Sean O'Donovan
IBM
sean.odonovan@ibm.com
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