New Fantasy Feature Ups The Ante On The Masters Digital Experience


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Following the action at Augusta National online or on the major championship’s official app just got a little more interesting with the debut of Masters Fantasy.

The Masters scratch second-screen game, powered by digital partner IBM
IBM
, adds new bells and whistles every year. Recent upgrades include tapping artificial intelligence capabilities to track every shot hit and create automated highlight reels to the personalized “My Group” feature launched last November that allows fans to focus on their favorite players as they work their way around the golf course.

The new and free-to-play fantasy element is aimed at both golf aficionados and sports fans who may only tune into pro game action once or twice a year. The game uses IBM’s Watson to generate player insights to help participants make informed decisions when choosing their foursome. Watson Discovery’s natural language processing capabilities mines thousands of media mentions to handpick nuggets of actionable intelligence while Watson Studio’s AutoAI curates useful stats. Fans can opt to ignore data points, go with their gut, and pick Jordan Spieth in the “past champions” category because he’s coming in red hot after winning the Valero Texas Open or choose Christiaan Bezuidenhout in the International category simply because they like the sound of his name.

“It’s intended to be very welcoming to golf initiated people and golf uninitiated people and folks who really might not be familiar with fantasy but are looking for a new way to engage. Every design point was about being fun, engaging and welcoming,” Noah Syken, IBM’s vice president of sports and entertainment partnerships, says.

If one or more golfers is eliminated either due to a withdrawal, disqualification or simply not making the cut, players are able to pick out a replacement while hanging onto the points they’ve already accrued.

“We want people to stay with the tournament all the way through,” Syken explains, adding that this way even if a team has a player blow-up, they still have a chance to compete all the way through Sunday afternoon when the green jacket is awarded.

While there are prizes consisting of Masters swag, no cash is on the line so the primary motivation for fielding a team and taking on friends in a private league is pride and bragging rights.

Aside from driving up fan engagement, the data management required to run the fantasy game along with other additions to the Masters digital experience made in recent years also showcases the IBM hybrid cloud in action.

“We are observing in the marketplace that companies that win have the ability to work with their data wherever it resides. We believe that a hybrid cloud is fundamental in enabling the capability to do that, not only to be able to work with that data wherever it is but also being able to bring in new capabilities and new applications like Fantasy Golf very rapidly,” Syken explains.

“Speed is really the winner in the marketplace. Less than six months ago we launched the hybrid cloud at the Masters. Six months later we integrated fantasy golf into it and these are the kind of capabilities that every business needs. You may need a new HR application across your enterprise, and you need to be able to integrate it quickly and efficiently regardless of where that data exists.”

Big Blue isn’t ready to reveal what is on the drawing board for next year’s Masters digital experience but the pace of innovation will continue to move as fast as Bryson DeChambeau’s clubhead while cranking a tee shot. The success of NBA Top Shot and the torrid growth of the blockchain-based collectibles market in general sure has to make a foray into NFTs tempting.

“It’s impossible to not keep your eye on that marketplace right now and we are definitely looking at that,” Syken says. 

“I would keep an eye on the space over the next six months or so. It may be the Masters and it may be one of our other partners but it would be irresponsible to not look at what is going on there,” he adds.

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