Digital Fan Experience at Roland-Garros Slams Ahead

Technology has helped us stay safe at work and connected to our families and friends during the COVID-19 pandemic. This shift is even changing how we interact with entertainment and our passions, including this year’s Roland-Garros Grand Slam tennis tournament. In-person attendance was limited to a fraction of its usual level. At the same time, the expansion of the fan experience — using artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and virtual technologies — leaped forward, partly in response to COVID-19.

“2020 has introduced new challenges for how we consume sports and entertainment,” said Pravin Rao, chief operating officer for Infosys, the digital innovation partner for Roland-Garros.

At the 2019 tournament, Infosys introduced digital tools that allowed the public to examine the players and their stats in greater depth. Now, fans have an app that provides access to that same information plus an expanded collection of data and tools. Also, the fan portal’s user interface was redesigned to make it more intuitive and create a virtual-first experience for a tournament that few were able to see in person.

These advances at Roland-Garros reflect a trend in tennis as well as sports in general. As sensors, hardware, software, and internet speeds improve, games and tournaments now generate terabytes of data. The right analysis can turn that data into insights that often surprise fans and provide them with a better understanding of the game.

The limited size of a tennis court — 2,106 square feet — makes tennis an ideal sport for the data revolution. Hawk-Eye cameras and computer systems capture the path of every ball from every angle. The newer “ultra motion” cameras can even see the action at 340 frames per second.

All that provides a seemingly limitless amount of information for fans. The Infosys Match Centre website and new app this year offer rally analyses and a full complement of statistics. MatchBeats++ creates a visual representation of each game’s flow and results.

The new features for 2020 include rally analyses, head-to-head matchup data, and stroke summaries, which provide detailed breakdowns of every important moment. The tournament’s delay allowed Infosys to create the new 3D Match Centre and focus even more on the remote fan experience. This feature — similar to what TV broadcasts sometimes use — presents an immersive visualization of the court and animations showing the height, trajectory, and location of every shot.

“We wanted to give the fans many different ways to feel and sense the game from the comforts of their home, and for the insights to amaze them as much as the live tennis action does,” said Raghavan Subramanian, head of Infosys’ tennis platforms.

Today, many fans demand more than just traditional statistics and post-match interviews. They want access to everything and the ability to customize that knowledge. That’s led Roland-Garros to focus on digital technology and fan interaction. Last year, the tournament’s social media reach increased from 1 million to 4 million people. And livestream views were up by 17%.

But even the most digitally savvy consumers can find the amount of information available dizzying. Brilliant Basics, an Infosys-owned design and innovation studio, revamped the Match Centre website and created the new app with input from fans.

The new interface uses what’s known as progressive disclosure, a helpful approach when navigating a potentially overwhelming amount of information. The system initially provides the viewer with higher-level data and allows the user to progressively dig deeper into the next levels. The goal is to make the website and app less daunting even as the amount of data increases. Match Centre needs to be equally engaging for all fans, from the casual followers to those who want to dive deep into the numbers. The earlier results are positive, with fans spending more time on Match Centre and interacting more with the data.

Sports fandom has always been an active and interactive form of entertainment, from cheers and boos to team songs and hushed intensity. However, technology has expanded and molded the nature of that fandom, particularly among younger generations. On social media, fans can interact with each other — and sometimes the athletes — on a global stage. The open nature of the internet allows fans to become amateur analysts and sometimes professional ones

Although coaches and players still have access to more and better data than fans do, the difference between the information available to the professionals and the public has never been narrower. Bernard Giudicelli, president of the French Tennis Federation, said the technology allows “our fans the opportunity to slip into the shoes of an expert.”

But no matter how important the stats and data, sports still grab us more by our humanity than by our intellect. Subramanian said AI and automation perform incredibly well when we’re sifting through mountains of data to present the most relevant information.

“The other is a work in progress,” he said, about turning data into narratives. “Trying to tell a story from this — that is where humans still do far better than machines. That is the game-changer.”

Behind the #15Love Experience: This blog series celebrates the spirit of collaboration and innovation that went into shaping the Roland-Garros 2020 digital landscape. Follow Infosys on LinkedIn to hear stories of passion and purpose from the teams at Infosys and French Tennis Federation (FFT), as they talk about the next normal in experiences, partnerships, technology and branding.