Sportradar launches "Tennis Point Exhibition Series" with PlaySight and Base Tennis Academy

As live sport starts to slowly return, Sportradar, provider of sports content and intelligence, announced Thursday partnerships with PlaySight Interactive and Base Tennis Academy to launch the Tennis Point Exhibition Series, a three-date series of events starting in Germany this Friday, 1 May.

The four-day event, featuring eight top men’s players from the ATP ranks, will be streamed live via Tennis Channel’s new Over-the-Top (OTT) platform – Tennis Channel International. Utilizing Sportradar’s  OTT platform, Tennis Channel International is available as a paid-for app to tennis fans in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, and was launched this week with a one-month free trial. The service is also available on Tennis Channel’s www.tennischanneleverywhere.com website.

Organized and hosted by Base Tennis Academy at their sports complex in Höhr-Grenzhausen, Sportradar is delivering a range of live tennis content solutions directly from the event. This includes data production, using data collection software that the umpires will use to score matches and transmit data back to Sportradar.

Additional live content from the event includes a state-of-the-art audio-visual offering. Working alongside PlaySight Interactive, Sportradar’s live video content will feature a seven camera production, with live mixing and replays, graphics and German commentary. 

Sportradar is also providing integrity monitoring services for the event series, with this weekend’s fixture being the first competition to take place between ATP ranked players since professional tennis was suspended in early March due to the coronavirus outbreak.

David Lampitt, Managing Director Sport Partnerships at Sportradar, said: “This is a significant moment as we move to bring back live tennis. The players have received compliance clearance from the ATP and TIU to participate in the events and we will be monitoring event progress, as well as providing remote production services to maximise safety on-site.

“We’re tapping into the full breadth of our technological capabilities to deliver safely and responsibly at this time for our partners.” 

Playsight Managing Director Rodney Rapson said: “We have enjoyed a strong working relationship with Sportradar in other past endeavours, and are excited to lead the return of tennis with them – in a safe and responsible manner.

“We are taking the opportunity to utilize video and production technology in new ways to provide the very best viewing experience for tennis players around the world, while ensuring stringent compliance with Germany’s coronavirus measures.”

Andy Reif, Senior Vice President, Tennis Channel International, added: “Sportradar is an integral partner in the global rollout of Tennis Channel International and the platform’s ongoing performance for our customers.

“Once live tennis returns, we are especially excited to introduce MatchCast, our new play-by-play and statistics graphical interface powered by Sportradar that will allow tennis fans to follow live competition around the world in real time with dynamic graphics, advanced data and statistical information you can’t find anywhere else.”

Base Tennis Director Ruben Herrera added: “At Base Tennis, we asked ourselves a simple question: what can we do today that will help serve the tennis community’? We wanted to bring the joy of tennis back to peoples’ lives, and that is how the event came to be. It has grown well beyond our initial expectations thanks to the great partners and players that have joined in.”

The first Tennis Point Exhibition Series event begins this weekend with subsequent events taking place between 7 – 10 May and 14 – 17 May. Each event of the Series will be available via the Tennis Channel International app.