Redesigned USOpen.org and US Open App will
Include New Fan Experiences Leveraging Hybrid Cloud and Explainable
AI
ARMONK,
N.Y., Aug. 18, 2022 /CNW/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and
the United States Tennis Association (USTA) today announced a
five-year renewal of their longstanding, 30-year partnership. From
the launch of USOpen.org in 1995 to the introduction of the mobile
app in 2009, and last year's debut of the IBM Power Index with
Watson, IBM and the USTA have
collaborated for more than three decades, today delivering a
world-class platform that provides unparalleled, first-of-its-kind
fan experiences through hybrid cloud and AI technologies. This
year, they will continue to expand and enhance the US Open digital
offerings with new features added to the US Open app and USOpen.com
ahead of the 2022 tournament.
Building on the popular IBM Match Insights with Watson feature — which analyzes millions
of data points and over 100 million sources over the course of the
tournament — 'Win Factors' brings an additional level
of transparency into what is being analyzed by the AI models..
Win Factors is designed to provide fans with an increased
understanding of the elements affecting player performance, such as
the court surface, rankings, head-to-head records, ratio of games
won, net of sets won, recent performance, yearly success, and media
commentary. For the first time at the US Open, users can also
register their own predictions for match outcomes on the US Open
app and USOpen.com, through the 'Have Your Say'
function. They can then compare their prediction with the
aggregated predictions of other fans and the AI-powered
Likelihood to Win generated by IBM.
"Our partnership with the USTA provides a unique opportunity to
showcase the full breadth of IBM capabilities, against the backdrop
of one of the most exciting and iconic sporting events in the
world. As we look ahead, the possibilities to continually expand
and enhance the US Open digital fan experience are endless," said
Jonathan Adashek, Senior
Vice President of Communications and Marketing at IBM.
"Together we have created a platform of innovation by activating
the same hybrid cloud, AI technology and IBM Consulting services
that we use with our clients across all industries to bring the US
Open digital properties to life for millions of tennis fans around
the world."
"IBM's expertise and digital leadership has brought our fans
closer to the tournament for the past three decades," said
Kirsten Corio, USTA Chief Commercial
Officer. "We are excited to continue to leverage IBM's
innovative tech to serve up the tournament in exciting new ways and
deepen global fan engagement with the US Open."
Win Factors and Have your Say join a
comprehensive suite of digital fan features — including the IBM
Power Index, Match Insights, and Fantasy
Tennis game — on the newly redesigned US Open digital
platforms.
The USTA and IBM iX, the experience design arm of IBM
Consulting, worked to design and develop an updated website and app
designed to enable fans around the world, and onsite at the US
Open, to access the tournament, their favorite content, engaging
insights and utilities faster and more intuitively than before. The
US Open Digital Platforms include many new features. Fans can mark
their favorite players to curate their digital experience based on
their selections. The Scores, Schedule, Draws, and Players sections
have been completely redesigned to deliver more relevant and
contextual content and insights. The US Open mobile app introduces
a new toggled state called "At the Open" which is specifically
catered to the on-site attendee. "At the Open" is designed to
provide fans with everything they need to optimize their visit,
including ticket access management, mobile food ordering, grounds
maps and curated content outlining each day's events.
The US Open's digital experiences run on a combination of
on-premises, public, and private clouds, and IBM has designed a
data architecture that helps ensure the right data — pulling from a
variety of data sets and APIs — gets in the right hands at the
right time. IBM leverages a hybrid cloud approach to collect,
integrate, and distribute data and applications running on Red Hat
OpenShift across multiple clouds to seamlessly handle the variety
of different workloads required. This year's innovative solutions
were built on IBM Cloud, and containerized using Red Hat OpenShift.
The flexibility of the cloud allows for rapid innovation each year,
as the IBM developers building these solutions are able to write
code for new features once, and deploy it in any environment.
The 2022 US Open, including its Fan Week, during which the
Qualifying tournament is held, runs from August 23 through September 11. To see IBMs
technology in action, including the daily
updated IBM Power Index, visit USOpen.org, or on your mobile device
via the US Open app, available in the Apple and Android app
stores.
Media Contact:
Rebecca
Bernhard
rebecca.bernhard@ibm.com
About IBM
IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI,
and business services provider, helping 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. Nearly 3,000 government 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 business services deliver
open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is
backed by IBM's legendary commitment to trust, transparency,
responsibility, inclusivity, and service. For more information,
visit www.ibm.com.
About USTA
The USTA is the national governing
body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. and the leader in
promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level --
from local communities to the highest level of the professional
game. A not-for-profit organization, it invests 100% of its
proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, one
of the highest-attended annual sporting events in the world, and
launched the US Open Series, linking seven summer WTA and ATP World
Tour tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it owns approximately
120 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S. and selects the teams
for the Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, Olympic and Paralympic
Games. The USTA's philanthropic entity, the USTA Foundation,
provides grants and scholarships in addition to supporting tennis
and education programs nationwide to benefit under-resourced youth
through the National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) network.
For more information about the USTA, go to USTA.com or follow the
official accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
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SOURCE IBM