Behind the strawberries, cream and grass courts, Wimbledon runs on a year-round digital engine. Ahead of this year's Championships, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and its 39-year technology partner IBM have rolled out a refreshed website and app, powered by generative AI and a dedicated 50-person consulting team nicknamed "Court 19" — the unofficial 19th court that never goes quiet.
A Partnership Built on Understanding Fans
Wimbledon draws around half a million visitors to the grounds each year, alongside hundreds of millions of fans following the tournament online worldwide. With the Championships opening next week, AELTC and IBM are now entering year two of a five-year digital development roadmap designed to keep the tournament's traditions intact while reaching fans in new ways.
Usama Al-Qassab, Marketing and Communications Director at the AELTC, said the club's priority is understanding exactly who its audience is and how they engage, so it can reach more people, more often, and in more ways.
"We don't see tradition and innovation as butting against each other. We've always innovated here at Wimbledon, but we do it in a cautious manner."— Usama Al-Qassab, Marketing and Communications Director, AELTC
Court 19: The Year-Round Engine Room
While the spotlight stays on Centre Court, a different kind of work happens at what Kameryn Stanhouse, Vice President of Global Sports and Entertainment Partnerships at IBM, calls "Court 19" — the behind-the-scenes tech hub powering the tournament's digital experience.
Unlike a typical vendor relationship, IBM keeps a team of 50 consulting staff embedded with the AELTC throughout the year, many of them working directly out of Wimbledon's own offices. As the club approaches its 150th anniversary next year, both organisations point to a shared respect for history paired with a forward-looking mindset — citing the retractable roofs added to Centre Court and No. 1 Court as earlier examples of careful, deliberate innovation.
Elevating the Fan Experience with watsonx
New AI features built on IBM's watsonx platform anchor this year's website and app, aiming to serve everyone from die-hard fans to once-a-year viewers. A standout feature is the Enhanced Live Likelihood to Win model, which factors in real-time news to generate pre-match win projections — a model AELTC says has tracked accurately for the men's singles final over the past three years.
As matches unfold, those win probabilities update live, with the platform showing fans the reasoning behind each shift. A companion Key Moments tool highlights momentum swings within a match, while the new Enhanced Match Chat lets fans ask natural-language questions — from match recaps to player name pronunciations — and now pulls in live video and photos for instant context.
Human-Led Data and What Comes Next
Despite the scale of the technology, both organisations stress that automation stays secondary to human judgment. Fred Baker noted the system is built to automate where it makes sense, while keeping people in the loop wherever oversight matters most. Tennis commentator Gigi Salmon echoed that accuracy and trust are non-negotiable, since fans receiving real-time information expect it to be correct.
The results back up the approach: digital engagement grew 16% year-on-year in 2025, and AELTC reports continued double-digit growth, with total engagements now topping 18 billion. Usama Al-Qassab credits the players first, but says the technology is clearly fuelling deeper fan interaction and sharing. As the gates prepare to open on 29 June, he says the true measure of success still comes down to the smiles on fans' faces at the front gates.