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Friday Grab Bag-How is your QB rated?

October 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Apple stays hot
The demand for the new iPhone 4S is so great that even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak had to stand in line to get one, and not just in line, but over night! That might show the popularity of the latest phone offering from Apple, but reports from AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel is that they all sold out of the phone during the preorder period. A visit to their web sites shows that versions of the phones can be back ordered with a wait ranging from one to four weeks.



While RIM keeps cooling
Research in Motion was flying high just a few years ago as its RIM platform was a must have by corporate execs who used it to free themselves from their desks. The company had an overwhelming market share and no viable competition. However it looks as if the market has bypassed the company and it is feeling pressures that it is unused to and questions are arising as to if it can react properly and in time to save itself. That is the issue that is examined by Forbes and should be a warning to all companies that get complacent about their technology and market share. The recent three day outage that RIM recently experienced will not help its standings.

Sony brings video library to Tablet S
Sony is attacking rivals on multiple fronts with the rollout of its Video Unlimited for its Tablet S platform. The company is leveraging its strengths in multiple fields ranging from technology to movie distribution. The company will offer its Video Unlimited feature, which includes more than 6,500 films and 40,000 TV episodes from a wide array of film studios and networks, and will be available not only on the S Tablet but also on Sony Ericsson phones. Now you never have to miss “Friday Night Lights!” The company will eventually move the feature to other Android based devices, but not all of them and currently has no plans to support Apple’s iOS platform due to the high fees that Apple charges.


ESPN’s QB Ratings cause a Stir.
Ever wonder if ESPN’s much ballyhooed Total QBR system would give us a true look at how well a quarterback did in any one game? Here is a look at two QBs from last week. One was 26 of 39 passes for 396 yards and two touchdowns and his team won, the other completed four of 10 passes for 79 yards and a touchdown while also running the ball six times for 38 yards and a touchdown and his team lost. Which one do you think had the better game according to QBR? People have been raging about this all week around the sports world; however my position changed after I read this well thought out piece from The Big Lead. For a slightly different look go to the stats guys at FootballOutsiders.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, AT&T, BlackBerry, ESPN, Sprint, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Madonna at Super Bowl exposes SB Nation news gambit

October 4, 2011 by 3 Comments

SB Nation.com, a social-media collective of 300 sports communities, already rates as one of the sports industry’s most innovative mobile applications. And increasingly, it is edging into the arena of breaking major sports news.

On Oct. 3, SBNation.com moved an exclusive that Madonna has signed on to perform at halftime of Super Bowl XLVI. While that may seem like a fluffier scoop than most hard-core sports fans really care about, the Madonna story ranked No. 1 under sports news on Google Results through Oct. 4.  

SB Nation’s ability to move exclusive news ahead of traditional sports outlets is a trend worth watching because it could make or break the sports social media start up. In fact, the traditional media, including the NYTimes, views SB Nation as a blog network with attitude, and Wall Street and others typically value the company as a blog content play. However, SB Nation has more going for it than traditional media and Wall Street give it credit. SB Nation’s publishing platform is specifically designed to make it easy for sports fans to comment and interact. It is certainly an easier place for the average sports fan to get noticed than ESPN, CBS Sports or a hometown newspaper website. So, if SB Nation is consistently able to break exclusive sports news, while continuing to provide social media services superior to established media companies, it could emerge as an unstoppable force as sports on mobile devices and iPads grows and evolves.

On the other hand, if Madonna is a no show for Super Bowl XLVI, as she has been twice previously, then SB Nation’s credibility is thrown into question. Sports fans are serious about their league and team news. And, if SB Nation misses the mark on enough of its newfangled sports news exclusives, consumers may come to consider SB Nation as no better than a secondary source for sports news. In other words, sports fans may continue to choose to interact on SB Nation, but content billed as news on the website would simply drive the audience to other sources for verification.

No matter what happens, the sports social media start-ups are clearly chasing journalistic legitimacy. The Madonna story was reported and written by SB Nation editor Andrew Sharp, one of a growing number of in-house journalists SB Nation has added. And, SB Nation is not alone in its attempt to build a legitimate news operation. Competitor Bleacher Report Inc. has recently stepped up to hire big-league journalists as part of a “lead writer program” launched in August.

Big dollars are involved. In October, 24/7 Wall Street listed SB Nation as the eighth most valuable blog in America at $30 million, behind Perez Hilton at $32 million and ahead of FunnyorDie at $24 million. Gawker Properties was No. 1 on the 24/7 Wall Street list at $240 million.  

 

Filed Under: ESPN, Uncategorized

ESPN Tests Casino Advertising Through Soccer Sponsorship

October 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment
In-Running

ESPN agrees to provide advertising space to online casino

Sports betting company William Hill said Monday that it has reached an agreement with ESPN to sponsor Italian Serie A, Dutch Eredivisie and Russian Premier League soccer. The deal marks the most aggressive move to date by ESPN to cater to a sports book, and increases William Hill’s profile among U.S. consumers.

Under terms of the deal, William Hill will sponsor all ESPN television coverage of the three leagues. In addition, it will be the exclusive betting partner of ESPN’s upcoming ESPNsoccernet mobile application. It will also have banner advertising on the ESPNsoccernet website.

In striking the deal, ESPN is tip-toeing into the potentially lucrative arena of selling advertising and providing direct marketing links to people interested in opening online betting accounts with sportsbooks. Although soccer is a niche market, ESPN could eventually enter into similar advertising and sponsorship agreements for football, basketball and baseball coverage.

Based in England, William Hill purchased in April 2011 the Leroy’s and Cal-Neva chain of sports books for $39 million. That deal that is awaiting regulatory approval to be completed. With Leroy’s and Cal-Neva, William Hill will be positioned to compete in the domestic market for legal sports betting on mobile phones and iPads, if federal laws are overturned that make wagering in any state other than Nevada illegal.

Eventually, largely because of the innovations forged by Cantor Fitzgerald subsidiary Cantor Gaming, it is possible that sports fans will be able to conduct on-going prop betting at games they are attending (called In-Running). Cantor Fitzgerald is a Wall Street investment firm that was devastated by large losses to its workforce during the 9-11 Attacks. As a means of survival, the firm branched into proposition sports betting built on the same analytics platforms once used to manage its hedge funds. Today, it provides “in-running” bets for a growing number of Las Vegas casinos, and real-time proposition betting is the largest growing segment of Nevada’s annual sports bet handle.

Filed Under: ESPN, Soccer, Uncategorized

ESPN Radio Exec says Smartphone Audio Key to Future

September 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Marc Horine, VP Digital Partnerships and Sales Development for ESPN Radio, told Mobile Sports Report on Friday that “20 percent of our listening is coming through a digital audio device” and that content delivered through smartphones and iPads rates as key to ESPN Radio’s future.

Horine is the ESPN Radio executive involved in such ESPN partnerships as StubHub and the GSI Commerce Inc.’s ESPN Shop collaboration. He said the goal is to get programming like the popular shows “Mike and Mike in the Morning,” “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” and “The Scott Van Pelt Show” to as many consumers as possible, regardless of the device used to listen in.    
“It comes down to building a great, clean, simple easy-to-use product that works,” Horine said.

Horine’s comments follow ESPN’s deal earlier this month to partner with San Diego-based Slacker Inc. to provide ESPN on Slacker Radio, including premium services priced at $3.99 and $9.99 per month which allow people to store radio programming locally.

For ESPN Radio, the deal signals that The Death Star (ESPN) will be aggressive in licensing digital audio rights to technology partners interested in distributing content. In so doing, ESPN is prepared to tap into the phenomenon of sports fans who are using mobile devices to view and listen to sports, interact via social media and access sports information that provides more insight into the game. If successful in making its content a top choice of the most sophisticated of mobile sports fans, ESPN Radio will be able to capitalize on the coming booms in personalized advertising tied to sports programming and direct-marketing offers tailored to hardcore fans.

For San Diego-based Slacker, the ESPN deal pushes the dot.com toward a much broader base of audio content. To date, Slacker has been a reliable technology platform for music, and has only recently moved into news, sports, comedy and commentary. The push is designed to make Slacker not only a choice for audio content when listening at home or at work, but also when traveling, Slacker CEO Jim Cady told Mobile Sports Report.

Filed Under: ESPN, ESPN Radio, iPad, iPhone, Uncategorized, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , ,

Thursday Humor: Don’t Use Your Laptop in a Horse Trough

September 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Screen shot of ESPNWatch TV ad with the cowboy in the horse trough -- note the disclaimer text.

Just some Thursday fun: While we’ve all seen the ESPNWatch TV ad multiple times now (the one with the cowboy watching a laptop in the horse trough) you have to look quickly to catch the witty disclaimer that runs across the bottom of the screen: “Do not attempt while bathing in horse trough.”

You might also add, good luck finding a cell tower out in the pasture. Or remember, you need to have an existing contract with Verizon, TimeWarner Cable or Bright House to actually use this cool app. But never mind all that. Today we just laugh.

Filed Under: ESPN, Live sports via mobile, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: ,

The Ongoing Search: What’s the Best Mobile Play-by-Play Service for Football?

September 27, 2011 by 1 Comment

NFL 2011 mobile app, showing play by play. Good clear screen, detailed info.


There’s a whole lot of folks telling you that you can keep up on football games by using your mobile phone — but how well do the services actually work? In an ongoing search that will probably last all season long, your MSR crew (meaning me) will perform random acts of mobility, following NFL and college games via mobile to see if these services deliver, or if they fall incomplete.

Monday night my dinner-making grill-master duties coincided with the Monday night tilt between the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins, giving me a perfect chance to test out some of the mobile play-by-play services, like ESPN’s Gamecast, the NFL.com NFL 2011 app, and Sprint (my cell phone provider’s) Sprint Football app. The early verdict says: go with NFL 2011 as your starter, ESPN as your backup, and leave Sprint Football on the bench.

Though the NFL 2011 app has a little annoying banner ad at the bottom of the screen (the ESPN and Sprint services also have banner ads), its play-by-play updates are generally more informative than ESPN’s, giving it the edge in a basically even competition. Both services suffered from an annoying lag time between play posts — which, if your screen is set to go dark to save power like mine is, means you may occasionally have to hard refresh the device to keep the app alive. I’d buy a beer for the first service to add a simple “status” banner that could tell you something like “play under review” or “game in TV timeout” so that you aren’t stupidly staring at the screen waiting for an update.

The Sprint Football app. Basically unreadable, so bench this one in favor of other services.

I ruled out the Sprint app after less than a minute — though it might be informative it suffers from a too-cute design that uses a screen shot of a football field as a backdrop, making its white type illegible when you are looking at a post that blurs into the lines of the field on the drawing. Seriously, Sprint folks — does anyone there look at these things? You can’t read it. Change it, please.

Both the ESPN and the NFL app, which have sensible, clear backgrounds, both suffered mightily to keep up with a fast, complex play — like the interception thrown by Dallas QB Tony Romo in the first quarter that ended with a fumble out-of-bounds call that needed replay review. The play by play apps were no help, basically stalling and never getting around to explaining what happened — they just both picked up with Washington running plays in Dallas territory.

ESPN's Gamecast app, not live but even this wrapup shows the clear black-on-white format that works well.

Having access to a TV set just a few steps away from the barbecue gave me the ability to see how well the online apps were keeping up — and the answer was, not well at all. Both the ESPN and the NFL apps were at least three plays behind the live action; if you watch the Internet version of Gamecast on your PC you can even see that the Twitter stream embedded in the app usually has info that is ahead of the Gamecast info. If I ran either one of these operations I would strip them back down to make sure that the play by play is as close to live as possible. Remember, fans may be using this service as a replacement for the TV announcers who annoy us all. So you’ve got to be faster than they are now.

The bottom line — neither of the top two services is satisfying if you are doing nothing but concentrating on the screen, since they don’t stay “live” enough to hold your attention or keep your phone’s screen lit. I will keep looking to see if there are other services that concentrate solely on play by play, as well as trying to cobble together a Twitter stream to approximate play by play because Twitter is fast. We should have a Verizon phone in hand soon to test out the NFL Mobile app, and we have also heard that Yahoo has a pretty good service so we will look for that as well.

Anyone else out there figure this out? Chime in below in the comments.

(all photos credit: MSR.)

Filed Under: Android, Apps, ESPN, Live sports via mobile, Monday Night Football, NFL, Sprint Tagged With: , , , , ,
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