Big Data Analytics are Enhancing Women's Tennis
Today the women of the WTA are playing for over $137 million, the global leader in professional women's sport. In 1970, when Billie Jean King started the organization, she signed a famous $1 contract.
The WTA was founded on the desire to create a better future for female tennis players, women as a whole, and people across the globe.
A Leader in Innovation
The WTA is not only a leader in female sports, but also in innovation. The organization saw opportunity and advancement in introducing on court coaching in 2008, designed to further enhance the entertainment value of women's tennis to television and live viewers.
Watch the full video interview with WTA CEO, Steve Simon, here.
The modern fan of 2016 wants real-time data and behind the scenes information. "They want to feel like they're with the player," Simon continued. "They want to know what the players are seeing. They want to see the strategy as it's unfolding in front of them."
"Running SAP HANA is definitely making it easier for fans to enjoy us," said Simon. "It's giving them the in-depth background information that they're looking for. No longer is the fan just looking for pictures; they're looking for the story behind the pictures, and SAP is helping us provide that."
Future Enhancements
Looking into 2017, the WTA will implement a brand new broadcast strategy enabling the live broadcast of every WTA singles match as well as the semi-finals and finals of every doubles match. All of the broadcast data will be hosted on the SAP HANA Cloud Platform.
"The goal of the WTA, which is currently the number one women's professional sports league in the world, is not just to be the number one women's sports league in the world, but to be competitive with all sports. Our partnership with SAP is going to allow us to build audience because of the stories that we're able to tell, and thus be competitive in that marketplace," closed Simon.
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This story originally appeared on the SAP Business Trends community.