MELBOURNE, Australia,
Feb. 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/
-- Tennis Radar: The Next Big Era, a report by the
Infosys Knowledge Institute (IKI), the research and thought
leadership arm of Infosys (NYSE: INFY), the global leader in
next-generation digital services and consulting found that tennis
must embrace new inclusive experiences, powered by technology and
analytics to engage the next generation of fans. The research
surveyed 3,000 tennis fans globally and interviewed with prominent
organisers, coaches, professional players, industry
influencers and media. Infosys is the digital innovation partner of
ATP Tour, Australian Open and Roland Garros.
The drive and need for access and inclusion
Tennis participation has grown 10 percent globally in the last 5
years. Tennis has successfully expanded to and has reached new
players and audiences across the globe. However, despite this new
found reach, experts of the game suggest that there's a large
untapped pool who may never watch or play tennis because they think
it's "exclusive" and "difficult to play".
The report found that tennis is becoming more accessible through
experimentation at all levels, from grassroots to grand slams and
through fantasy leagues, Esports and technology like virtual
reality that bring new fans to tennis. Nearly a quarter of the
players globally come from China
(23 percent), yet the country has only 10 percent of the world's
tennis courts and only a few clubs, stifling potential growth in a
sports market tipped to reach $470
billion by 2025.
While China averages 393
players per court, at the other end of the scale France averages just 87, Australia 104 and Germany 122. The report also found tennis fans
are aging, and the average age of tennis fans—in the West, at
least—is higher than the average age of the population.
Data analytics and digital technology: creating a level
playing field
At the elite level, the research found equal access to detailed
player and match data analytics. The report references Infosys'
StatsLounge, democratising match data for all players and coaches
to analyse their performance, examining crucial match stats using
sophisticated filters to generate video clips from more than 1,000
data combinations. But it's not just players and coaches who are
hungry for data. The report found fans also seek more detailed
match and player insights with the rise of second screen
viewing.
The age of experiences
The report found that like all consumer products, tennis is no
longer a discrete activity, it's an experience — consisting of
dispersed, shareable micro-moments both on and off the court.
Recent research by Tennis Australia found the 'fun' aspect of
the Australian Open atmosphere as the second-most important factor
for attendance for people under 50. "At the Australian Open we are
crystal clear what has led to us trebling our business in 5 years.
Taking a Grand Slam tennis tournament and adding to it has expanded
our audience into new segments and geographies. But you have to
commit. We take our 'families' business, our music festival and our
food vertical as seriously as we do our tennis. If you don't, it
doesn't succeed," said Richard
Heaselgrave, Chief Revenue and Experiential Officer.
Technology driving growth of Tennis
While tennis in recent years has seen multiple formats and
innovations trialed at different levels of the sport, fans across
all age groups, including GenZ (84 percent) and millennials (85
percent), said match length is not a primary barrier to engagement
with the sport. The report identified opportunities to introduce
new fans to the sport globally with analytics-based and virtual and
augmented reality technologies.
Analytics-based experiences improve enjoyment for 83 percent of
fans surveyed according to the Tennis Radar research. For example,
fans at the Australian Open can play against the greatest tennis
players in the world using VR and AR technology — in a simulated
Rod Laver arena, the Australian
Open's centre court. More than 125,000 fans have engaged with
Infosys VR at the Australian Open, Roland-Garros, and Nitto ATP
Finals and other ATP events. Similarly, Roland-Garros plans to
involve pros from the Esports area within the Roland-Garros
eSeries, to tighten the link between real-world and virtual-world
tennis fans.
Experience Index
To understand how data and analytics impact fan enjoyment of the
game, the Infosys Knowledge Institute created the Analytics
Experience Index, synthesizing fan response to multidimensional
questions about match technologies, player statistics and game
data.
The Index found that analytics improves fan enjoyment,
particularly among younger and more tech savvy audiences. Over a
third (38 percent) of 18-22 year olds were identified as the
highest category of tennis technology and analytics 'Enthusiasts',
compared to just 13 percent of those 55 and older.
"At Roland-Garros, we believe innovation, social technology and
analytics-based experiences have a key role to play to make tennis
more accessible and more engaging to the existing and new
generations of tennis fans and our partnership with Infosys will
ensure the Roland-Garros DNA remains true to our roots but can also
evolve and be future ready," said Michael Tonge, Director of Sponsorship,
hospitality and ticketing, FFT.
Social technologies are also helping tennis grow, including at
the club level, with apps like Tennis Connect, where users can
schedule courts and invite others to play. Similarly, Tennis
Australia's Book a Court platform enables people to book a court
anywhere, anytime, and pay via mobile phone. France's FFT launched Ten' Up in April 2019 and has over 200,000 downloads.
U.B. Pravin Rao, Chief Operating
Officer, Infosys, said, "Tennis doesn't resonate with people if
access to playing and watching the game isn't made easy. Infosys is
proud to be a digital innovation partner of the ATP Tour,
Australian Open and Roland-Garros. This research reinforces that
tennis can become even more successful if it can increase access to
playing, watching, and understanding the game, and to do that,
technology — especially social technology and analytics-based
experiences — will play a vital role."
For a full copy of the report, please visit
https://www.infosys.com/navigate-your-next/research/tennis-radar-report.html
Notes to Editors
*Wimbledon.com, USOpen.org,
RollandGarros.com,
Ausopen.com
Survey Methodology
In October 2019, the Infosys
Knowledge Institute used an anonymous format to conduct an online
survey of 3,085 tennis fans from eight countries -- Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Spain,
the United Kingdom, and
the United States.
To enrich insights, we also conducted phone interviews with more
than 30 stakeholders representing player, coach, event organizer,
club owner, equipment manufacturer, media, and broadcaster
perspectives.
About Infosys
Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services
and consulting. We enable clients in 46 countries to navigate their
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managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we
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performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda
drives their continuous improvement through building and
transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our
innovation ecosystem.
Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY)
can help your enterprise navigate your next.
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