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NFL Ratchets up Tools for Fantasy Players

July 31, 2013 by

Every had a burning question about a NFL player, team or issue but did not have time to research it and none of your friends will help because it might give you a competitive advantage in your Fantasy Football League.
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Now the NFL is stepping in and has developed an online fantasy football community called Fantasy Genius where you can post questions such as who is starting at QB this week for the Cleveland Browns, which running back you should start this week or are any of the Jets receivers worth selecting in our upcoming draft.

The site has the potential to serve millions of fans so there is the potential to become inundated with responses but it is designed so that you can focus on what interests you. Head over here to set up your profile- this enables you to not just establish yourself as a fan but is also the spot from which you can track your questions and view results. Users have the ability to preset how often they get email updates on their questions.

You can have focused discussions with fans on specific topics and post your team and have others rate it, or rate individual players. It also areas of interest such as Top Trending Questions and who to start and who to bench. If you participate in the ‘who to start’ feature you can earn ratings including draft expert.

This is an interesting idea but I wonder how the trolls will be dealt with. If you have ever visited a team fan site there are always people that log in just to insult rivals. I think this will be an interesting feature to try out for awhile and see how well it helps fans in their pursuit of fantasy glory.

Filed Under: Fantasy Sports, NFL Tagged With: , ,

San Jose Sharks’ Partnership with SAP brings Hi-Tech to Arena

July 10, 2013 by

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The San Jose Sharks parent company Sharks Sports & Entertainment Inc., the City of San Jose and SAP International have joined together to use existing and emerging technologies to both enhance the experience for fans but to also for internal use and working on player performance.

The five year relationship also calls for a new official name for the Shark Tank, which will now go by the moniker of the SAP Center at San Jose. The parties involved said that the deal will make the Center a showplace for Silicon Valley high technology as well as help the team.

For those unfamiliar with SAP, at least in relationship to sports teams, this is part of a concentrated effort by SAP to mine the growing needs of both teams and leagues for both high tech internal technology to handle everything from analysis of player performance, scouting to ticket sales as well as providing fans with the growing list of features and services that they are growing accustomed to from Wi-Fi to apps that improve the experience at the stadium.

SAP has been working with the team for some time and has surveyed fans about their experience and from that data the company has initial plans to engage in some specific areas to improve their experience at the center. They include many things that a fan might expect such as providing real time alerts, up to date team and player information, hooks into social media and game video.

Good news to fans that hate the long lines that can slow entrance to a stadium or to concessions will be the adoption of technology that enables fans to use mobile devices to gain access to the arena but also buy food and merchandise from a phone or tablet. Fan loyalty programs are also under consideration.

That is all for the fans. The team will also be leveraging SAP’s traditional analytic and cloud capabilities. The team plans to use SAP’s technology in its daily operating, leveraging its expertise in areas that include cloud computing, big data analysis and mobile technology as tools for daily operating as a business as well as to handle the unique challenges that face sports and entertainment facilities and teams.

Currently the Sharks are also looking at the SAP Scouting Solution as a tool to assist its scouting department evaluate players and delve down to what the performance statistics mean in the real world.

SAP is throwing an increasingly large net in the sports world and has relationships with a variety of leagues including the NBA, and NFL as well as prominent teams including the Sharks, NY Yankees and San Francisco 49ers.

Filed Under: Apps, Live Sports Video Consumption, NBA, NFL, NHL, SAP, Social Media, Social Media Data, Tablets Tagged With: , , , ,

Jets Executive Talks about Importance of Mobile App in Connecting to Fans

June 13, 2013 by

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A New York Jets executive took the stage at the annual Multiscreen Summit which concluded yesterday in New York City and discussed the importance of mobile apps and a strong social media presence are vital to keep fans engaged both at the stadium and away regardless of how the team does on the field.

Paul Marsh, director of app development for the New York Jets comments came during the two days of discussion at the conference that focuses on a range of marketing and advertising challenges and opportunities as well as how to engage and hold customers in a range of areas, including sports.

According to Mobile Marketer, Marsh focused his comments on the importance of in stadium and out of stadium experience its growing importance during his part of the “Fireside Chat: Location, location, location” panel segment of the show.

He talked up the Jets mobile app, and how important that is to the team both in and out of the stadium. The social hooks in the app are very important he said because it allows fans to communicate with each other and to share content. The Jets are looking at enhancing the app in the future so that fans can better communicate with the team and the team can follow fans activities in the stadium and so customize service to better meet fans’ needs going forward.

MLB has been working for some time to develop apps that do this and now offer a variety of different features including in some stadiums the ability to order food at your seats with an app or to move down to better seats. The NFL as a whole has seemed to miss out on connecting with fans in this way and until I read the article in Mobile Marketer I was unaware that the Jets had a personalized app. I spend a fair amount of time on the NFL main page and it would have been nice if they pointed this out.

The conference as a whole looked very interesting with a list of presenters that ranged from Google, Mozilla, Rovio Entertainment, Microsoft, PayPal, MasterCard and Michael Bayle, the former general manager of Mobile for ESPN.

I was a bit surprised at the lack of additional sports executives at the event since it’s obviously a massive viewing and advertising platform in America, just among the big three of NFL, MLB and NBA, not counting events such as BCS games, March Madness and the College World Series.

Filed Under: Apps, Baseball, Live sports via mobile, NCAA Football, NCAA.com, NFL, NFL Mobile, Sports Social Media Tagged With: , ,

Verizon Extends NFL Mobile Deal for $1 Billion

June 4, 2013 by

Verizon Wireless and the NFL have extended their current deal around mobile viewing of live NFL games, with a $1 billion, 4-year extension announced this week.

The billion-dollar deal does not, however, cover mobile viewing on tablet devices, a distinction noted by this story in Sports Business Daily and one we will bet is going to be kept by the league for its own video streaming plans. There will be more to this story later, but the good news for football fans who have Verizon phones is that for the 2014 season, you will be able to watch all live games — including CBS and Fox broadcasts — and not just the Thursday-Sunday lineup now available.

No word yet on ESPN’s plans to pay for mobile access for sports fans. On the Verizon side, the NFL Mobile viewing access is still apparently priced at $5 per month, but I bet that increases with the increased game schedule in 2014. Got to pay for that $1 billion bill somehow!

Filed Under: CBS Sports, Fox Sports, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NFL, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Microsoft Signs Deal that Brings Interactive Viewing to the NFL

May 23, 2013 by

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Microsoft will soon be a presence on the field and in your home as part of the NFL game-watching experience as the team has joined with the league to provide interactive viewing capabilities to fans in a 5-year deal that is estimated to bring an additional $400 million to the NFL’s coffers.

There is a catch of sorts, you need to be viewing using Microsoft’s Xbox One game console or another device that features Xbox Live. For the fans that have that technology they can now permit users to have split screens that show stats, fantasy football team data and game highlights in real time, among other things.

It will also support Skype so that fans can be using the same device to watch games as well as chat with other fans or friends during the game. Other features include access to the NFL’s RedZone and replays from a matchup. Also if a user has a second screen or mobile device they can have additional information sent to that device simultaneously as when they are viewing on the Xbox One.

The deal could lead to another solid plus for Microsoft. Over the last few years a number of teams in the National Football League have talked about their use of Apple’s iPads as a training tool and a superior replacement to the traditional binders that had been in use for decades. However it now looks like Microsoft has taken a night march on Apple and inked a deal with the league that will call for the Microsoft Surface tablet to be used on all the teams’ sidelines.

While this is still in an area that the league is investigating the Surface tablet would be used to provide up to the minute information about looks and formations that other teams are using during games. Players viewing printouts and pictures of formations could be a thing of the past as they instead watch plays on a tablet on the sidelines. Referees will not be left out of the action as it could become the key viewing tool for replays and challenge calls.

Filed Under: Apps, iPad, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Microsoft, NFL, Surface, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , ,

WSJ: ESPN Thinking About Paying for Your Mobile Sports Jones

May 9, 2013 by

You have to fight your way around the paywalls to read it, but the Wall Street Journal had a story today about ESPN talking to wireless providers about paying part of the fees for people who watch sports via cellular connections. There’s nobody on record, but when the WSJ uses the familiar “according to people familiar with the matter” dodge you know that somebody wanted this story to get out.

For the carriers, this is a kind of a holy grail thing — if ESPN starts subsidizing watching sports via cellular, you can bet that AT&T and Verizon will step up their marketing machines to sell tablets and smartphones. I’m imagining a future where you pay something like $50 a month, which gets you live NFL games and a free iPad to boot. Think you’d sign up tomorrow?

Why would such an arrangement be valuable to ESPN? With more mobile users, the worldwide leader could jack up the fees it charges advertisers since it would have incredible amounts of granular user info, right down to where the user is watching. And I’d bet you wouldn’t be able to watch any other channel on that subsidized device. But then again — would you care?

Net neutrality worries aside, it will be interesting to see if this deal comes to fruition. With Verizon’s exclusive cell phone rights deal with the NFL coming up for renewal next year, it’s the right time for something new to happen. We’ll stay tuned.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, ESPN, NFL, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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