Revolutionizing tennis with tech: Sumit Virmani, Global CMO Infosys on Future of sports innovations

Hey, thanks for having me. Great to be here.

That's a great question, and it wasn't by accident for sure. It was driven by about three or four different factors that came together at that point of time about eight years ago. Infosys services are for the 40s and 50s, so can there be a sport that can equally appeal to the youngsters as well as to people like us who are excited by what's happening to this sport? Tennis is something that cuts across generations. The second dimension is we were looking for a sport that has presence globally. We are present in 50 plus countries around the world, and we were looking for a sport that has appeal across most of these markets. In addition, we were looking for a sport that has an opportunity to expose the brand and expose the tech all year round, not something that happens for two weeks. And we were looking for a sport that is ready to embrace tech to reimagine the game for its stakeholders. All of that came together in tennis, and that's how we are associated with tennis.

Sure. Let's talk about a few stakeholders and give an example each from the stakeholder community. Let's talk about the billion fans of the sport. One of the aspirations of every organizer and every sports tournament is to attract more audience and engage them with the sport and its progress. Now, if you are a fan watching a match on TV, you get a two-dimensional experience. We were able to make that immersive and interactive with the Infosys Match Center. With Infosys' vision, you can go to the live match happening, see the 2D view, a 3D trajectory of the ball, its spin, speed, bounce, follow the game point by point, rally length, instead of just looking at a set of data points like 40-30. That's been consumed by over one and a half million fans around the world over the years. Another great example is virtual reality tennis. If you and I are big fans of the sport, we might play the game once in a while, we might even be lucky enough to walk into a court, but it's definitely possible in virtual life. We created virtual reality tennis where a fan can transport themselves into the actual court championship environments and play a game while looking at their stats and performance vis-à-vis who they're playing with. That's been very popular, with over half a million people engaging with that experience. But something I'm incredibly proud of is what we've been able to do for the players on the tour. In a game like tennis, the few top players have access to a lot, and then there's a long tail of players that find it difficult to get access to the most advanced technology and insights. Today, every single player on the tour and their coaches can have video analysis of their past games against a specific opponent, see what worked, where they made errors, how they reacted to pressure in breakpoint situations, and get insights and recommendations to prepare for the next match against a specific opponent on a specific surface. That's something that today is available to every single player on the tour through the platform we created. Those are a set of examples, but the possibilities are endless.

I would say that the possibilities are immense. To be fair, even in the Indian market, I'm seeing a significant amount of tech development and tech impact on the analytics of a game, at least from a fan perspective. As a fan of the game, we all know the quality of analytics on IPL broadcasts has grown dramatically over the years. But the possibilities are immense. I would say today, the kind of innovations I've seen in tennis that we have been privileged to be a part of, and the great work we've seen in other sports, are immense. The question simply is: are the sporting ecosystems looking at the power of tech to holistically embrace it or only keep it in one dimension?

I think the way we were thinking about our association with tennis, we realized it's only a natural progression to also have the biggest ambassadors of the game become ambassadors of the brand Infosys. But as you rightly asked, when a brand is choosing an ambassador, it cannot just be about the popularity of the star; it has to be more than that. In this case, we were looking for an ambassador that aligns with the persona and the values of the brand Infosys. So it was not just about excellence and fame, but also about dimensions like evolution, commitment to larger causes, and humility—something that we believe personify Rafael Nadal.

Actually, you're right. It has become a template for us. We started with ATP, and subsequent to that, we've gone on to stitch multiple partnerships both in sports and outside the sporting world. For example, the Madison Square Garden partnership is a great one, again on very similar lines. The media partnerships we have with the Financial Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal—all of them are built on exactly the same model: it has to be not just a brand play but a holistic, credible play of the brand.

I think the biggest challenge was the philosophy of bringing the business of sports with the business of marketing. If you look at most organizations, marketing works in a silo, and then the business and tech work in a silo. The idea was to bring it together and say, 'Hey, it's a win-win for both.' For the brand, it makes the partnership a lot more credible because you're actually putting your credibility on the line by saying my offering is going to make the sport better. That to me is a huge opportunity.

Absolutely. I would say with the kind of revolution we have all seen on Gen AI in the last 12 months, and the progress we have seen on the mixed reality side, clearly we are going to have fans experience the sport in ways they never have before. You're seeing the cost of VR come down, 5G is getting rolled out across the world at speed. All of this is converging. Tomorrow, as a fan of the sport, if I have a high-quality, high-connection, and RCB possibly becomes the franchise that provides me an opportunity to watch the match live in Chinnaswamy from my living room by wearing a VR headset—can you imagine the possibilities of expanding the pool of audience and making the stadium capacity relevant? So yes, possibilities are immense, and tech can create the next immersive experiences if adopted.

I would hope that we see a lot more tech integration to make the sport exciting and accessible. The question simply is: we are all part of a sporting ecosystem in one way or another. The question is, can that experience be constantly elevated, which everyone is hoping and gunning for? I believe with the power of tech and the power of innovation we have seen through AI and other technologies, the future is exciting.

I would say that the worlds of sports and technology are converging in a very exciting way across the world. If that's where your passion lies, there are enough opportunities.

At this point, while tennis is something we've had a presence for several years, the other sport we are actively engaged in is through the Madison Square Garden partnership with basketball. So that's something we are participating in from a brand perspective. I would say our focus is on deepening our existing partnerships.

I think the biggest takeaway for me is to see a platform like this come to India. It showcases both the maturity and the potential of the Indian sporting ecosystem, how ripe it is now for global franchises to see interest in a sport. You're already seeing a lot of Indian firms actively participate in not just sports in India but even around the world. Having a platform where Indian sports expertise can converge and meet global sports expertise to bring back value to the Indian sporting ecosystem is fantastic.

Thank you. Great to be here.