ATP unveils latest AI technology to protect players from online harassment

In response to online harassment of professional tennis players, Tennis Data Innovations (TDI), Sportradar, and the ATP have launched a new initiative called Safe Sport.

By
Adeel Talib
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Atp Tour Launches New Initiative

A new program called Safe Sport has been introduced by ATP, Tennis Data Innovations (TDI), and Sportradar in response to internet harassment directed towards professional tennis players. The partnership creates a new standard in athlete protection by mixing artificial intelligence (AI) moderation, education, and investigation into a single service to safeguard athletes.

Starting this month, the Top 250 ATP singles players and the Top 50 ranked doubles players will have free access to the new service, which is opt-in only. It uses a combination of AI tools from Arwen AI, a partner of Sportradar, to search through players’ social media channels in 29 different languages for spam, abusive and toxic remarks, and bots.

Flagged comments are instantly hidden to shield players and their followers from objectionable content. Presently, 600,000 comments are processed daily by Arwen, safeguarding more than 750 million followers worldwide on Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, and TikTok.

To identify the perpetrators and connect online behaviour to tangible consequences, Sportradar’s committed intelligence analysts will concurrently actively look into threats and possibly illegal remarks. Additionally, players will have access to an instructional program that addresses issues like how to deal with abuse, how to reduce online hazards, and how to be honest on social media.

To address online abuse, which has long been a problem in sports and is crucial to safeguarding player welfare, the ATP has launched Safe Sport, its most extensive program to date.

Andrew Azzopardi, ATP Director of Safeguarding, stated: “The ATP is committed to safeguarding players and their wellbeing. This includes taking a proactive stance against online abuse, which has become a very important issue in the lives of modern athletes. This collaboration will ensure that tennis is playing its part in tackling this issue and shining a light on the effects that harmful online discourse can have on our communities. We’re grateful for the support of TDI and the expertise of Sportradar in making this happen.”