At the China International Fair for Trade in Services, known as CIFTIS 2026, in Beijing, Orange Lion Sports presented a new technological platform for grassroots sports. The sports technology enterprise, founded by Alibaba Group, unveiled its Smartshot 2.0 system on September 14 and 15. The solution is designed to bring advanced officiating and operational capabilities, which have traditionally been limited to top-tier professional venues, directly to amateur facilities. Its primary focus centers on automated line calling and streamlined tournament execution.
The hardware architecture relies on a specialized camera infrastructure tailored specifically for conventional amateur tennis courts. A network of six synchronized cameras monitors match action and tracks the ball trajectory in real time. This optical array aims to achieve Hawk-Eye level precision without relying on complex, stadium-grade tracking hardware. Through continuous video processing, the system identifies every bounce location relative to court boundaries.
During contested points, the system delivers immediate feedback across the court. Line calls indicating whether a ball landed in or out are displayed instantly on large screens and announced through localized audio alerts. In amateur tournaments, where fixtures generally operate without certified chair umpires or line judges, this capability targets a recurring operational hurdle. The automated notifications are designed to eliminate officiating errors and remove disputes between competing players.
Beyond optical ball tracking, Smartshot 2.0 incorporates software functionality dedicated to event administration. Orange Lion Sports embedded Alibaba's proprietary large language model, Tongyi Qwen, directly into the platform to power an AI Tournament Assistant. This generative system can ingest unstructured tournament circulars, operational guidelines, and rulebooks distributed in PDF format, extracting relevant constraints and event parameters.
Tournament organizers can communicate with the assistant using plain natural language prompts to structure tournament brackets. The system autonomously compiles match schedules based on the processed rules and timetable specifications. By pairing multi-camera court vision with language-based scheduling automation, the system addresses both in-match officiating and back-office management in grassroots competitive sports.