As Wimbledon unfolds, the world’s attention naturally turns to rivalries, upsets and championship runs. But behind every match is an increasingly sophisticated layer of technology that is reshaping how tennis is watched, analyzed and monetized.
A.I. has accelerated the evolution of sports data from a back-office resource into a strategic business asset. Today, millions of real-time data points power everything from broadcast enhancements and personalized fan experiences to coaching analytics and commercial partnerships. As governing bodies and technology companies continue to invest in richer datasets, the focus is shifting beyond collecting information toward extracting meaning from it and determining who stands to benefit.
That shift 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 A.I. enables richer storytelling, predictive insights and more personalized viewing experiences, the commercial value of live sports data is expanding well beyond traditional applications, creating new opportunities for media companies, sponsors, technology providers and rights holders alike.
For Patrick Mostboeck, senior vice president of fan engagement at Sportradar, that transformation is only beginning. While sports data is often associated with betting, he argues its greatest opportunity lies in making tennis more engaging and accessible for fans while creating new value for broadcasters, rights holders and athletes. Looking to the future, he believes A.I. will fundamentally change how audiences experience live matches through predictive insights, personalized content and augmented broadcasts that add context in real time.
Observer spoke with Mostboeck about how the commercial value of tennis data has evolved, why official data rights are becoming increasingly strategic and where A.I.-powered fan engagement is headed next. He also unpacks why one of sport’s oldest institutions has become an unlikely proving ground for some of its newest technologies—and why the next chapter of tennis may be defined as much by data as by what happens on the court.
Wimbledon is often viewed as one of tennis’s most tradition-bound institutions. At the same time, it’s becoming increasingly data-driven. How has the commercial value of tennis data changed over the last decade, and what role does A.I. play in that evolution?
If you look back over the last decade, I think sports data has undergone quite a development in tennis. If we were to 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 last couple of years, it has evolved into a tool for engagement. It has evolved into a tool for further commercialization.
The main part of this transition has been that, with more and more data points being collected, there was also a need to make meaning out of those data points. This is clearly where artificial intelligence plays a major role, because if you collect thousands of data points every second, it’s just not possible for a human [being] or the human eye to collect those data points, but then also make meaning out of them.
This is where, clearly, A.I. plays a major role in processing this data, creating a story out of these data points and then also distributing it.
A.I. is making it possible to generate richer insights from matches than traditional statistics ever could. What kinds of information are now being captured or inferred that simply weren’t 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 for us, of course, is, on the one side, where the players are positioned on the court, but also where the ball is exactly landing.
That feels like quite a trivial thing, but being extremely precise and detailed [about that] is something that I think the world of tennis has worked on for many, many years. Now you see the development that, for most tournaments, large parts of the umpiring [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 significant, and who ultimately benefits from that value? Is it tournaments, governing bodies, broadcasters, technology providers or fans?
For me personally, the two most important stakeholders are always the fans on the one side and the athletes on the other side, because those are the only ones without whom the whole ecosystem can’t really live and breathe. Based on those two stakeholders, I think you can clearly see that fans appreciate additional depth of information and additional context.
Using this additional depth of data within tennis really serves the education [of fans]. It really serves the information needs of the fan, so that ultimately the fan becomes more engaged, spends more time with the sport of tennis and, ultimately, this results in commercialization opportunities. And clearly—and this is where it’s kind of a vicious circle—the more fans engage with the sport, the more they ultimately spend on the sport.
This is where, in equal terms, players participate. This is where tournaments participate. This is also where the media industry participates, because the media and entertainment industry can only create a good product if there is strong interest from fans. So it all comes together, but clearly the fans are at the center of the picture for me.
Looking ahead, do you see A.I. 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 some too-distant future: augmenting the way fans see and experience the sport of tennis. It’s now possible to augment the broadcast, which is typically the way most fans consume tennis.
From a sports perspective, we have created a product called 4Sight, which augments the sport of tennis. More specifically, it provides additional contextual data overlays directly 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 this data comes together to provide that context.
I think this, on the one hand, gives us the chance to create a more compelling entertainment product. And that ultimately results in fans staying engaged for longer.
Wimbledon is synonymous with heritage, while A.I. represents constant innovation. How do you see tennis balancing those two identities without losing what makes the sport distinctive?
For me personally, they’re doing a great job of keeping exactly this balance. Every year, when I see the way the Wimbledon grounds 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 connected with additional, deeper data points. Specifically, [it’s about] how brands, companies and different stakeholders associate themselves with 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 working within this industry can contribute by working closely together to explore that opportunity.
Many people immediately associate sports data with betting, but its applications extend far beyond that. Beyond wagering, where do you think A.I.-powered tennis data will create the greatest value over the next five years?
The two most immediate use cases are clearly, first, the media and entertainment space. Sports data has a huge opportunity to enrich and enhance the broadcasting and streaming of tennis. If you look at the current landscape of how tennis is broadcast, I think there’s still a significant opportunity, across both traditional players and new players, to enhance the viewing experience.
I think this is one of the beauties of the sport of tennis. Tennis really has the opportunity to be one of those truly global sports because, if you look at the top 20 or top 50 players, you’ll find so many different nationalities represented that there’s interest in the sport across virtually all parts of the world.
The second area I would highlight is coaching and analytics. Clearly, one of the main stakeholders, and I mentioned this before, is the players themselves, the athletes. For them, understanding the data behind their own performance and performance analysis, and having tools to help interpret that information, is a quite natural next step in this development.
Broadcast rights have long been considered the crown jewel of sports media. Could data rights become equally strategic?
The answer is absolutely yes. I think, in some ways, we’re already on the path to creating these additional commercial opportunities, but for others, we probably don’t even know what’s possible yet. Personalization of the fan experience is a significant opportunity. But if you think about commercialization through advertising and sponsorship, I think combining those data points—or additional depth of data—with brands, and the opportunity to advertise at the contextually right moment, is a significant opportunity. This is truly where sports data, on the one side, and commercialization, on the other, come together to create additional benefits.
I think those two areas play well alongside each other. It’s always hard to predict how their respective values will develop. Data rights, and the products being developed from data, have a clear path for growth, as do media rights. So, from a rights-holder’s perspective—and from the perspective of the sport—I think there’s a clear benefit to developing both of those 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 A.I.?
A crystal ball is always difficult, of course, but I would say that predictive capabilities will become more and more standard across sports, and likely within tennis specifically. 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 much more of the broadcasting and entertainment landscape shifts toward predictive insights—what is going to happen in the next minute, what’s going to happen in the next five minutes—and that data is then used across all kinds of entertainment applications. Whether it’s sports betting, sports media or coaching applications, I think this predictive type of data can be quite useful.
