SAP and the Women’s Tennis Association introduced a brand new portal that provides real-time tennis analytics for media during WTA tournaments. SAP solutions, including SAP Leonardo Machine Learning capabilities and SAP Predictive Analytics software, enable new portal to provide deeper analysis based on historical and live data.
SAP and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) announced a new online portal that provides data and insights to media in real time during WTA tournaments. SAP® Tennis Analytics for media is the latest technology stemming from an ongoing partnership between SAP and the WTA. The software uses innovative technologies and analytics to enhance the sport for tennis for players, coaches, tournament organizers, media and fans. SAP Tennis Analytics for media will be available exclusively for the WTA credentialed media at the start of the 2018 WTA tour. The announcement was made at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global Developments Pte. Ltd., the culmination of the WTA season.
SAP Tennis Analytics for media applies SAP Leonardo Machine Learning capabilities and SAP Predictive Analytics software to provide deeper analysis and insights based on historical and live data. It includes instant side-by-side player, tournament and career comparisons during live matches. The software provides a brand-new “alerts” feature that notifies users of any outliers in benchmarked player data and gives media access to stats with context – data accompanied by meaningful insights.
“The role of data in tennis continues to grow in importance across the entire tennis community, and particularly among tennis journalists who play an integral role in storytelling throughout the season,” said Micky Lawler, president, WTA. “The opportunity now to have access to SAP’s blueprint of real-time insights can take the art of tennis journalism to new heights. Our fabulous partnership with SAP continues to deliver innovations that improve the sport for our fans and all of our stakeholders around the world.”
To ensure that SAP Tennis Analytics for media is a valuable resource optimized for reporters’ unique needs, SAP has been securing feedback from key tennis media and the tennis community for the last few years.
Following the success of the performance-based SAP Tennis Analytics for coaches, SAP Tennis Analytics for media was specifically developed as a resource for media covering WTA tournaments. The software helps enhance stories before, during and after matches and serves as a comprehensive database housing key and informative WTA stats gathered over the course of 20 years.
Eighteen-time Grand Slam champion and tennis broadcaster Chris Evert has been collaborating with SAP on the development of SAP Tennis Analytics for media. “As a broadcaster, having access to SAP Tennis Analytics for media is really valuable,” said Evert. “I am more informed, concise and my commentary is more insightful. The data is great because it reinforces what I see during the course of a match and that allows me to deliver a better experience for the viewer.”
SAP Tennis Analytics for media delivers a tailored experience that can be customized based on individual needs. The technology is available across devices, including mobile phones and tablets, so the media can access the portal no matter where they are located as well as when they are on the go.
“We’re excited to bring the same deep level of data and analytics seen in SAP Tennis Analytics for coaches and the Tournament Performance Center to our media partners,” said Jenni Lewis, head of tennis technology, SAP. “The real-time nature of insights provided by SAP Tennis Analytics for media has the ability to help media create richer content and change the way our audiences utilize data before, during and after tournament play.”
Now in the fifth year of their partnership, SAP and the WTA continue to collaborate on providing innovative technologies for the tennis community that help advance and grow the sport around the world.
