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SF Giants Catcher Buster Posey Launches Own Mobile Game

August 7, 2012 by

Buster Bash

The Giants’ catcher Buster Posey has just entered the company of a rarified few, an athlete still in their prime who gets a video game with his name plastered all across the cover, as he has with the Buster Bash app available at Apple’s App store.

Now the game does not have the elegance or complexity of EA’s Madden 13, but then a game that is designed to play on Apple’s iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad cannot really support that type of subtle game playing. Instead think of the more mainstream, easy to play and hopefully addictive games that populate the top 10 lists or games in the iOS market, or even in the Android space as well.

The game also does not have sophisticated animation but rather a very cartoon approach, but it is also simple and fun to play. Its basic premise is to follow Buster’s rise from a kid playing in his backyard in Leesburg, Ga. to his current position with the Giants in MLB.

As you play you can earn sunflower seeds that can be used to buy equipment and power-ups as you move from his early wiffle ball and tennis ball hitting days to where he faces major league pitching. In all there are five levels of play and participants swipe the screen as they attempt to hit the ball out of the park.

An interesting aspect of the game is that it will be primarily promoted via social media, according to a piece in Mashable. Info on the app has already been posted on Posey’s Facebook page, which has 325,000 followers and on Twitter, where he is followed by 50,000. Then the apps have their own Twitter and Facebook pages as well and will alert fans to upgrades and rewards that can be earned playing the game.

The free app seems to be hitting it off with his fans, which have already given it a 4 ½ star rating on iTunes, where it has only been available since Monday. I expect this is just the start of a trend in this area as popular athletes in baseball and elsewhere will likely see this as an extension of promoting themselves, and I can see a few of the attempts as being rather funny. How about a T.O. app?

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, Athlete to Follow, Baseball, Buster Posey, Contests, iOS, iPhone, Major League Baseball, San Francisco Giants Tagged With: , ,

Major League Soccer, Adidas bring Tracking Technology to Uniforms

August 2, 2012 by

MLS All Star Logo

I missed the MLS all start game a few days back that pitted the best that Major League Soccer had to offer against visiting Chelsea Football Club, winners of the UEFA Champions League, a game that the MLS won on a deflected goal.

While the win was a nice boost for MLS I just have a hard time getting all that excited about all star matches, in any sport, but in looking back at some of the news from the match one item caught my eye and this is something that will likely spread to other sports.

It seems that Adidas, one of MLS’ most important backers, used a data tracking technology that is embedded in the uniforms that all of the MLS players wore during the match. The league has said that next season the technology will be used by all of the teams in the league.

Apparently Adidas started developing the technology several years ago, and since it also supplies MLS with uniforms and shoes, it will be a pretty easy feat to incorporate the technology for the season. The technology monitors a variety of player metrics, according to a piece in the Portland Business Journal.

The technology, called the “micoach professional team tracking system” is designed to give coaches and trainers the ability to monitor player position, power output, speed, distance covered, intensity of play, acceleration and GPS heat mapping.

Adidas

It uses a small data cell that is embedded in the back of a uniform and is designed to rest between a players shoulder blades. It has the ability to wirelessly transmit 200 pieces of data a second, enabling a coach to have a real time outlook on a players effort and performance.

The MLS is expected to make at least some of the data streams available for fans to follow live at a game. I wonder if rivals can hack into a team’s stream to track which layers are lagging and so focus a team’s efforts against said player?

The ability to track athletic performance has been growing, with runners, bikers and a host of others getting anything from Nike + to smartphone-based apps to help monitor and improve performance but this is the first I have seen at a pro level. I hope that the league shares its results at the end of the year to find out what if anything, the data helped improve.

Filed Under: Adidas, Apple, Apps, iOS, MLS, Nike Tagged With: ,

Google Buys Social Media Startup Wildfire for $250m

August 2, 2012 by

Wildfire joins Google

Social media marketing startup Wildfire has been sold to Google for an estimated $250 million, an interesting partnership considering that the four year old Wildfire made its name in the Facebook space.

According to a blog post on Wildfire’s site the company is starting a new chapter in joining Google, where it is expected to continue operating as it has before/. The company was founded in order to run a promotion on Facebook and has strong ties with that company including receiving investment from Facebook.

Wildfire has established itself as a player in this space. The company, which has roughly 400 employees, 16,000 customers and the successful integration of its software across a range of social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and a number of others.

It runs many of the contests, promotions and marketing campaigns that are seen on social media sites and does not use keyword inquires as its targeting mechanism but rather relies on individual users’ data that is held by the social media sites.

The company said that the deal will not alter its relationship with its customers, but it will be interesting to see if that is true. Increasingly we are seeing technologies that once purchased by one social media company slowly becoming excluded from rival platforms, so it is hard to say.

The company was founded in 2008 by Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard and has launched over 250,000 social marketing campaigns using its software tools. It has received investments including from a number of venture capital firms including Accel Partners, Founders Fund, Summit Partners, 500 Startups, Felicis Ventures and SoftTech VC as well as Facebook’s fbFund.

Filed Under: Apps, Facebook, Google, Social Media, Social Media Data, Startup, Venture Capital, Wildfire Tagged With: , ,

NBC Doesn’t Show Lochte-Phelps, Makes Internet Wonder What Olympics They are Watching

July 28, 2012 by

If you were watching the Innerwebs this morning (Calif. time) there was a perceptible buzz of stunned wonder on Twitter, with nobody believing that NBC wasn’t going to show the first showdown between American swimmers Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps live on TV.

The race was available, but only through NBC’s online and app streams — a decision widely and quickly criticized.

Jason McIntyre from the Big Lead summed it up nicely:

And ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt had a three-tweet take:

Here at MSR headquarters we were ready to watch online but then had to run a quick errand so it was to the NBC Olympics Live Extra app we headed… where the Lochte/Phelps race didn’t even show up until, well, just about before the gun. We didn’t have any problems listening in (I was NOT watching while driving) to hear about Lochte’s gold and Phelps’ fizzle, but according to SB Nation, lots of other folks did.

It’s easy to understand NBC delaying the opening ceremony — even twice — to suck up ad dollars for all those people who aren’t really into sports. But — to skip a race in the middle of a Saturday just seems stupid. We are excited about sports being available online, but to have big matchups online only seems like NBC isn’t paying attention.

Filed Under: Apps, ESPN, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NBC Sports, Olympics Tagged With: , , , , ,

NBC Criticized For Not Streaming London Olympics’ Opening Ceremonies

July 27, 2012 by

The first controversy in the first Social Media Olympics has already occurred before one medal has been awarded.

With Twitter, Facebook tablet use and social media phenoms Instagram to Pinterest abuzz with activities, what didn’t happen was streaming content of the spectacle of the Opening Ceremonies.

According to an Associated Press report, NBC has received its share of complaints for not streaming the traditional pageantry start to the Olympics online. Instead, the occasion was reserved for the network’s Friday telecast.

Deadspin, the irreverent sports site, posted the link the the BBC’s stream of the ceremony under the headline:

“How To Watch The London Olympics Opening Ceremony Live (And Give The Finger To NBC)”

Christopher McCloskey, an NBC spokesman, told the AP the network had no plans to stream the opening ceremonies because the spectacle doesn’t translate well online. NBC also didn’t stream the opening ceremonies in Beijing, China, in 2008.

James Raia is a freelance journalist in Sacramento, California. Visit his website: www.tourdefrancelife.com.

Filed Under: Olympics, Sports Social Media, SportsStream Tagged With: ,

YouTube Deal Will Enhance ACC’s Digital Network

July 24, 2012 by

The Atlantic Coast Conference’s digital network has introduced a channel on YouTube that will deliver live content from the ACC as YouTube continues to grow as a force in live sports broadcasting with deals such as this.

We have long talked about the emergence of YouTube as a de facto channel for sports, and YouTube has been working hard to cement that position with the ACC deal as one of its more notable deals. However in case you missed it will also be serving up some nice Olympic moments via a deal with NBC that will enable it to show highlights and live events from the London Olympics.

The ACC and YouTube have been partners to a degree for several years and provided exclusive, but not live content at its site since at least 2009, however this takes it a significant step further.

Between that time and now the ACC started a deal with Silver Chalice that enabled it to launch the ACC Digital Network that provided broad coverage of the ACC schools including news conferences, highlights and analysis that could be delivered to both Apple and Android mobile devices.

Now it will also present live events as well as on demand videos that are created by the ACC as well as a live weekly studio program during football and basketball season. There will also be condensed replays of ACC Network productions of football and basketball games.

The current deal will call for the ACC to provide fan access and interaction to its analysts via Google’s Google Hangout. Fans can view, comment upon and share the programming by visiting youtube.com/accdigitalnetwork, or by searching for ACC Digital Network on YouTube.

Of course others are also working on attracting digital partners. The Big Ten Networks recently expanded to support Android in its broadcast and the Pac-12 is increasingly involved in digital media. Still it is nice that the ACC will be presenting live sports to its fan base and other interested parties.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Atlantic Coast Conference, BCS, Big Ten Network, Google, iOS, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, Pac-12, YouTube Tagged With: , ,
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