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Athlete vs. Fan Gaming Challenge App OverDog seeks Kickstarter Funding

March 7, 2013 by

overdog

OverDog, a potential new entrant into the field of apps that allow professional athletes to interact with fans is now in the fund raising process at crowd funding site Kickstarter with a goal of raising $100,000 within the next month.

The app claims that it will provide fans with the ability to have access to athletes, but not in the way that a social media such as Twitter allows. Rather it enables fans and athletes to issue video game challenges and then play each other.

The app will be free and available for both Android and iOS devices, but only subscribers will have the privilege to challenge and play athletes. In the future the app is expected to have Fan vs Fan capabilities as well as possibly live streaming matches.

OverDog has a group of current and ex-athletes included in the effort including Matt Forte, Calvin Johnson, David Price and Rex Grossman. Games that a fan can challenge an athlete to include Call of Duty, Madden, Halo and FIFA, with the site saying that additional games will be available for play.

So far the program has garnered approximately $31,000 in funding and offers a variety of incentives to invest in the program which is expected to be available in beta sometime in April of this year. For $15 you could receive a 3 month beta subscription starting with its release and for $20 you get a subscription for the rest of the year. The app is not expected to be available to the general public until August.

Step up into the $95 range and you get 5 subscriptions, at $150 you will receive a permanent subscription and then there are several offerings at the $1,000 level including a choice of an MLS or NFL package that includes a game with a player from your favorite team.

While it is increasingly common for players to interact with fans over social media such as Twitter, and there are apps to follow favorite athletes such as this one from NASCAR, Sprint and Turner Sports, and there have been hangouts with fans such as this one prior to last year’s Summer Olympics.

This seems to be a fresh approach and should have great appeal to fans; the issue is going to be one of availability and interest. If you have to wait weeks or longer to play a specific athlete the enjoyment will wan rapidly. Also it needs to maintain the athletes interest or they may stop logging in to play. Well that is in the future and if anybody starts playing let us know how it goes.

Filed Under: Kickstarter Tagged With: , ,

No More Sunday Ticket? Part of Unknown NFL Content Plan?

March 6, 2013 by

Reading the news today that DirecTV could pull the plug on its Sunday Ticket NFL package made me think of the cricket-chirping silence surrounding the NFL’s deal with Verizon Wireless and its NFLMobile package. According to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, DirecTV’s exclusive deal to provide all NFL games to its Sunday Ticket subscribers expires in 2014, after which the satellite operator might not renew if the rights fees go too high. We have no confirmation of any great plan in the works, but doesn’t it make sense that if the NFL wanted to consolidate its rights to offer content in a single fashion over all outlets, it would end deals like Sunday Ticket and NFLMobile?

Just a guess at this point. But certainly something to “stay tuned” on, while hoping that it doesn’t result in everyone having to pay $200 a year to watch NFL games. But an easy guess is to say that sometime in the near future, you will pay more to watch football. It’s coming.

Filed Under: NFL, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , ,

Heineken Reaches Out to UEFA Fans with Mobile App

March 6, 2013 by

heiny

Heineken, one of the sponsors of the UEFA Champions League soccer tournament has released a mobile and Facebook app that allows fans to enter into a contest that could result in their winning sports memorabilia or hosting a viewing event for the final match.

It is very simple to participate, and there are two manners in which you can do so. The first is to simply take a photo of yourself watching a UCL match and post it and tag your location. Each photo from a city counts as a point and the two cities with the most points gets to host a viewing of the last game in what it calls an epic party. You can upload three pictures a day.

The second is even easier as there is an instant win feature for people that use the text to win feature to get instant swag. Not surprisingly the app also has a handy outlet locator for people looking for the nearest place to buy a Heineken.

The effort is part of a larger move by the company to use social media as a tool to reach its fans and to broaden the appeal of its brand. A quick look at the Facebook site shows a number of efforts to appeal to fans with apps such as predict the managers next move or to design its next beer bottle. The contest runs until mid-April and will be supported by a series of ads on a variety of broadcast sports channels. The app is available for both Android and iOS devices.

Filed Under: iOS Tagged With: ,

Greatest Basketball Shot Ever Shows How YouTube is the New SportsCenter

March 4, 2013 by

In the past, we used to remember historic sports broadcasts from television, like Al Michaels’ famous “do you believe in miracles” at the 1980 Olympics. But now thanks to YouTube anyone can be an instant worldwide sports hero, and you will probably not forget hearing the local broadcaster say “it’s loose at point one!” to describe possibly the best basketball shot ever, Khalil Edney’s ultimate buzzer beater that got a writeup in the New York Times the Monday after it happened.

Didn’t see it? Here it is:

We’ve been saying all along here at Mobile Sports Report that services like YouTube and Twitter are going to take a big chunk out of ESPN’s SportsCenter when it comes to being the go-to place for replays. Especially when the replay in question comes from a high school game.

Filed Under: YouTube Tagged With: , ,

Sony Upgrades Tablet Offering with Xperia Tablet Z

March 4, 2013 by

sony

Sony has enhanced its tablet offerings with the Xperia Tablet Z that it debuted last week at the Mobile World Congress. Somehow this one flew under the radar last week, but it looks well worthwhile to recap since it looks like Sony has made major steps towards relevancy with its latest tablet offering.

While Samsung and Hewlett-Packard seemed to grab most of the attention for their tablet introductions the Sony offering is also one to take note of, and is a move to establish the company in the 10-inch space.

The Xperia Tablet Z features a 10.1 inch display that has 1920 x 1200 resolution capable of full 1080p HD. The tablet is water resistant and is powered by Qualcomm’s quad core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor. It has 2GB of RAM and can have a maximum of 64GB storage with an optional microSD card in the Wi-Fi version.

The tablet will be available in cellular and Wi-Fi only versions with the 16GB Wi-Fi models. The company’s press release did not give prices but it was reported elsewhere that the with the 16GB Wi-Fi models would be available for $499 and the 32GB model for $599, both from a Sony Store.

The tablet runs Android Jelly Bean 4.1 and will be upgradable to 4.2. It will include a pair of cameras, a 8MP rear camera as well as a 2MP HD front facing camera. For sound it includes the Sony S-Force Front Surround 3D and Sony’s Clear Audio+ mode capability.

The tablet includes other Sony technologies as well including its One-Touch functions to transfer content from tablet to either a TV, speaker or phone by touching them together. In addition it has a universal remote feature that enables it to remotely control Sony TV’s and other Sony built devices.

A key selling point of the tablet is weight, and while that may not seem obvious just looking at the raw numbers, it could end up being a top selling point. The smaller 7-inch tablets have been making strong inroads in terms of sales over the last six months or more. Many users I have talked with state that the weight of a 10-inch device simply is too much for one hand and they do not want to use it with both in many usage scenarios.

The Xperia Tablet Z is approximately a quarter pound lighter than the Nexus 10 and 2 mm thinner. It weighs 495 grams or 17.5 ounces and is 6.9 mm thick, thinner and lighter than the most recent iPad as well which is 9.4 mm thick and weighs 652 grams.

It seems like it will be much better accepted in the market than the unique Tablet S that Sony previously released. However there are tablets that have better features in individual categories such as display resolution, so a user will still have to make tradeoffs when purchasing one. However it appears that Sony has pushed itself into the space where it will be considered with other top offerings.

Filed Under: Tablets Tagged With: , , , , ,

ESPN’s Digital Media a Powerful Presence

March 1, 2013 by

espn

ESPN’s digital media is head and shoulders the most popular family of digital platforms currently used according to the most recent release from comScore’s Media Metrix Multi-Platform data that was released this week covering the first month of the year.

The program from comScore, is designed to track digital consumers over a range of digital platforms including desktop and laptop computers, tablets and smartphones. Introduced late last year the program is still in beta.

According to the report, in the Sports Category ESPN held a 29% share of all usage across the digital platforms that are tracked, and that it has a resounding 3x lead over the number two player Yahoo! Sports. It should be noted that overall Yahoo is the second most visited property on the web, according to the comScore while ESPN is 28th.

After Yahoo! Sports the lead gets even larger as ESPN’s market share is larger than the the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 sports properties combined. ESPN was No. 1 in the sports category across all key metrics, including average minute audience, unique visitors and total minutes of usage.

Some of the results give a pretty good view of how increasingly important digital media is to ESPN, not only in terms of viewership but also promoting its brand. In January the report said that ESPN had 62.6 million unique visitors, 24.2 million of which exclusively accessed content on smartphones and tablets. It also reported that mobile device users represented 41% of all time spent with ESPN digital content.

ESPN was increasingly aggressive in presenting a very wide array of options online for its mobile users last year, and that is probably a good thing as reports are that its old rival, Fox Sports, is planning to consolidate the vast array of different channels and programming under one roof and once again challenge ESPN, so the more ways in which you reach out to your audience the better.

Filed Under: Live Sports Video Consumption Tagged With: ,
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