Wednesday, June 27

SlamTracker: What is it & how does it work?


We followed four main matches yesterday (Robson v Shiavone, Tsonga v Hewitt, Nadal v Bellucci and Murray v Davydenko), and tweeted to the Wimble2012 Twitter account whenever SlamTracker threw up some news-worthy statistics. 

And every one of the 'Keys to the Match' were 100% correct. It meant we could share our comments on who we thought would win a match significantly earlier - and with more confidence - than others.

But what exactly is SlamTracker?

SlamTracker is IBM's tennis scorecard, designed to provide real-time scores and statistics to share around the world on a variety of devices for all matches in progress.

But SlamTracker is more than just a scoreboard. It's been evolved it into multi-functional analytics dashboard that uses sophisticated analytics software to provide:
  • New ways to enhance the experience of a tennis match.
  • Real-time visualisation of a tennis match using the scores and statistics.
  • 'At a glance' view, which provides fans with a visual representation of the match to help indicate which player is winning and which player currently has the 'momentum'.
  • An enhanced fan experience which deepens their relationship with the tournament by allowing them to interact with the scores and stats to gain deeper insight into a match.

SlamTracker also uses analytical software to present the 'Keys to the Match' feature.

And this bit is really nifty...

The software studies the past seven years' worth of Grand Slam data to look for patterns. In particular, it looks at every time two players have met each other, and works out what three things each player must do if they are to stand a chance of winning. These are known as the 'three keys', and an example might be 'Nadal has to serve consistently above 113mph' or 'Roddick has to win more then 29% of first serves with an ace'.

The 'three keys' are published just before the match commences, and the SlamTracker 'Keys to the Match' dashboard is updated in real time assessing progress against each key for each player.

And if you want to load SlamTracker and see it for yourself, click here.

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