You are here: Home / Archives for NBA

Is an Enhanced World Cup of Basketball on its Way?

June 20, 2012 by 2 Comments

The NBA is looking to alter the current World Cup of Basketball in a manner that will enable it to gain increased revenue from the event that is held every four years and is next scheduled to be played in 2014, according to a Yahoo Sports report.

The push is tied into an effort to discontinue sending star players to the Summer Olympics. While the Dream Team is one of the biggest broadcasting draws the NBA does not reap any revenue from the event and sees no reason to allow its stars to participate in an event where they might get injured.

For those who do not follow international basketball, there has been a World Cup tournament for some time, since 1950 to be exact, that is held every four years (with a few exemptions) and is played by the men’s national teams of members of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). The U.S. is the current champion, winning in 2010.

The idea appears to be that by partnering more with FIBA the NBA would bring its marketing might to the event and its superstars and in return, would get a piece of the financial pie, and a big slice at that. Yahoo reported that some owners want a new World Cup that is entirely controlled by the NBA.

It will be interesting to follow this, as I imagine that the loss of the dream team in the Olympics will likely mean a loss of any chance to win a gold medal, or possibly any medal, and so will result in a lot of pressure to start including the players once again. That was the reason the concept started in the first place.

Filed Under: Basketball, NBA, Olympics Tagged With: ,

NBA Pros Stephen Curry, Brandon Jennings Will ‘Hang Out’ on PlayUp App During NBA Finals

June 12, 2012 by 2 Comments

Fan interaction app PlayUp has announced that it will be hosting a couple NBA pros — the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry and Milwaukee Bucks’ Brandon Jennings — who will “hang out” in special PlayUp chat rooms during the NBA Finals.

Up first tonight is Golden State’s Curry, “hanging out” in a virtual room on the PlayUp app. If you’ve never tried PlayUp the pro player rooms are a good way to start, since the pros and fans are motivated to have a good interaction. We checked out one such interaction during the NCAA tournament and found it interesting.

“PlayUp is once again offering fans an incredible opportunity to connect with two of the most likeable
budding superstars during what is sure to be an exciting and memorable NBA Finals,” said PlayUp USA
CEO Dennis Lee in a press release. “We are extremely proud to offer a platform for Stephen and Brandon to showcase their
great personalities to fans.”

(If you don’t have the PlayUp app installed yet you can get it here.)

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Golden State Warriors, NBA, PlayUp Tagged With: , , ,

Fancru Takes up the Sports Fan Chat Challenge

June 12, 2012 by 2 Comments

Fans like to talk with fans, at least ones that share similar allegiances, and Fancru is seeking to exploit that with its sports app that will enable groups of like minded fans to chat as well as allowing you to reach out to your friends.

If this sounds a bit familiar it is. There are several other apps that are seeking to establish themselves as platform for fan interaction and FanCru realizes that it has to step up to the plate big time to enable it to be recognized above the noise in this space.

The app, currently only available for the iPhone (it will work on an iPad but is not optimized) is the brainchild of John Wagner, Fancru’s co-founder and president and Bill Diamond, co-founder and CEO. Wagner is a self proclaimed sports nut who constantly watches games and saw this as an opportunity for fans to share experiences with others both attending the sporting events and those following elsewhere.

The app has several different distinct functions, and in some ways it reminds you of a host of other apps such as Foursquare, since you can log in your location, ESPN, since it gives you scores, and rival apps such as Recapp which provide news articles about selected teams.

Similarities aside it has a game feed that connects you to other fans following an event. Then on top of that there is the Cheer & Vent function that allows you to vent etc as well as post images from where ever you are.

You establish an account and then select the sports teams and leagues that you want to follow-NFL, NCAA Football, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS and Brazilian Soccer. Add the teams you want and then you can connect to them via Facebook, Twitter, searching your address book, SMS and the old fashion way by including their names manually. You can check to see which teams have the most fans and earn points for prizes by doing various actions.

The company’s first version of the app, for all practical purposes a beta release, provided it with plenty of user feedback that it used to incorporate in its current offering. But it is not just listening to what fans think of the product that is important to the company. Available now for the iPhone the company is working on an Android release and then will optimize its iPhone app to efficiently run on iPads.

Fancru is taking an interesting approach in that it is seeking to engage teams and leagues into using its technology as possibly a front end to an app that the teams might be developing by opening up its SDK and APIs up to the market freely available.

It is hard to predict how that will work out for the larger, more established leagues such as the NFL and MLB. Right now MLB has AtBat as its official app, which it own. However MLB has been very proactive in trying to engage fans via a series of apps and contests and having like minded fans chat during games would seem to fall into the direction it is taking. There is also an effort to allow teams to add a local flavor to AtBat so that while the league might not adopt the technology local teams might have that option.

In addition Fancru has been accruing analytics about what its users are doing and so it would enable teams to better meet fans wants and needs, Wager points out. He sees the app as a valuable tool to teams that want to bring fans out to the events in a day when many have huge high definition televisions and are content with watching at home.

By enabling a team to have contests that could be centered on a game, a player or a section of seats it can bring fans into more active participation and with that more active attendance.

A challenge to an app of this sort will be breaking through the noise. The Apple App store has almost a million apps currently. There are slightly older rival apps that either point to a single sport such as GolfGamebook or are also more broadly based such as GrabFan, PlayUp and Kwarter.

Being a relatively new category helps since there really is not established leader and they are all facing the same uphill battle. In addition stadiums and leagues are only ow upgrading their wireless capabilities to enable in-game fan interaction. I suspect that within a year or two a huge number of fans will be using a chat technology that connects them to others in and out of the stadium.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Facebook, Fancru, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Major League Baseball, MLS, NBA, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, NFL, PlayUp, Startup Tagged With: ,

Friday Grab Bag: Replacement Refs, Sports Conspiracy and Windows 8 Coming

June 8, 2012 by 1 Comment

NFL’s contract talks with refs breaks down
The week started off with some bad news as it appears that the NFL and its referee’s union have not been able to come to a meeting of the minds in regards to the next contract for the refs. The most current one expired on May 31.

The two sides apparently met with a mediator to try and reach an agreement but that has not panned out and according to ESPN the talks have completely broken down. The league is now actively looking for replacement officials and will seek former officials and ones from smaller collegiate leagues but it is reported that it does not plan to raid BCS officials.

Apparently the NFL’s decision to hire backup refs does not sit well with the NFL Players Association, which has derided the hiring of ‘scab’ officials. Who would have guessed that these two would not get along.

Two trade associations seek to represent crowdfunders
You knew this was coming due to the growth of the number of crowd funding sites and the still undefined role that they play in providing funding for startups looking for a cash infusion. Now there are two lobbying groups vying for the crowd funding sites support.

The two are the National Crowdfunding Association and the Crowdfunding Professional Association both want to be the force for these companies in Washington D.C. This is still in its infancy since neither has yet hired a staff or leased offices, but you know it is coming.

Apple publishes guide on iOS security
With the growing concern about data security, especially on mobile devices Apple has moved to try and ease the concern about data on devices that run its iOS operating system by publishing a guide to how it implements security. Macnn has a nice breakdown here.

Window app numbers continue strong growth
The number of apps submitted to Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace has now topped 100,000, double what it was just five months ago, according to a piece in Endgaget. For those of you scoring at home this is slower that Apple’s App Store but faster than the Android Marketplace.

One of the big differentiators between the rival Apple and Android apps has so far seemed to be that the Android apps are too often one size fits all, good for tablets and smartphones while for Apple there tends to be a clear differentiation. I wonder how this is panning out for Windows and will we see most of these apps available, unchanged, for Windows 8 tablets?

NFL concussion lawsuits consolidated
A large number of the many lawsuits now pending in a number of courts across the United States have been consolidated into a master complaint against the league. In all it looks like approximately 80 cases have been brought together in this effort.

The suits contend that the NFL both glorified violence and downplayed the damage that concussions had on players. The NFL contends that it always has the players safety at heart, well that and an 18 game season.
Windows 8 in two weeks?

Microsoft is reportedly going to make pubic a preview of Windows 8 on June 20th, according to a report in Digital Trends. The move will make it an interesting month for operating system fans since Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference is next week and should have some interesting updates while Google’s Google I/O event is at the end of the month.

The Windows Phone 8 preview is expected to happen at a Microsoft event called the Windows Phone Summit, billed as a sneak peak of the future of the Windows Phone.

The Greatest sports conspiracy story ever told
For years I have heard that the 1985 NBA draft was rigged so that Patrick Ewing would go to New York. Never paid any attention to that, and for that matter really do not to this day. But Patrick Hruby goes to town on the issue and a host of others in the piece “The Truth is out there: From the 1985 NBA Draft Lottery to the Olympics to Game-Fixing…”

It s all here, frozen envelopes, mafia controlling NFL games, IRS and FBI documents carefully redacted and so much more. I enjoyed it a great deal, but was not sure if it was one long rant or a very clever tongue in cheek piece. Bonus conspiracy flow chart here.

YouTube to broadcast Olympics
We have long talked about how YouTube can position itself as an almost independent sports network and now it looks like it is taking that next step. The site will be providing live webcasts of the upcoming London Summer Olympics to viewers in Asia and Africa.

The plan is to provide ten channels that will feature high definition video of a variety of events including the medal finals of all 32 sports. In all it will broadcast a total of 2,200 hours.

FTC claims import ban on Microsoft& Apple could hurt competition
The Federal Trade Commission has said that Google’s efforts to ban Xbox imports by Microsoft and Motorola/Google’s efforts to stifle Apple’s iPhone sales based on patents that Google owns and claims the two have violated could harm competition. It will be noteworthy if the FTC puts some muscle behind this comment as it does appear that patent lawsuits are going to stifle both competition but also innovation

Filed Under: Android, Apple, BCS, FTC, Google, Microsoft, NBA, NFL, Olympics, Startup, Windows 8, YouTube Tagged With: , , ,

Timeout Tuesday: Playing Your Golf Shot off the Grandstand… to Win

May 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Welcome back to Timeout Tuesday, a few time-wasting videos to help you get your day going. First up is the PGA’s shots of the week, which include an incredible under-the-tree recovery shot from Phil Mickelson, as well as a winning putt from Jason Dufner. But I think the first shot fron Nick Flanagan is the winner of the bunch. Take a look and see what you think.

Second up is a ridonkulous and-one shot from Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook. While I can live without Westbrook’s angry-man court persona as well as his church-lady press conference red glasses, there’s no denying the skills of Westbrook, Kevin Durant and the other OKCers who made short work of Kobe Bryant and the Lakers legacy. (hat tip to the Big Lead, who always seems to dig up these videos within minutes. If you don’t follow the Big Lead, you should.)

Filed Under: Golf, NBA, PGA Tagged With: , ,

ExteNet Scores Another DAS Win, At the Brooklyn Nets’ new Barclays Center

May 16, 2012 by 5 Comments

Chalk up another impressive stadium-network win for middleman ExteNet Systems, which will install and maintain a DAS (Distributed Antenna System) network in the new Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA.

The Barclays Center, a 19,000-capacity stadium set to open in September, will host hundreds of events a year including home games for the old “New Jersey” Nets, who will move to the borough of Brooklyn for the next NBA season. Like it does at the new Marlins Stadium in Miami, ExteNet will act as the network service provider, connecting the small cellular DAS antennas to any wireless service provider who wants to improve its in-building coverage.

If you missed our previous post about ExteNet, here’s a quick primer on how it uses DAS to bring better service to fans, and better business to service providers and stadium owners:

If you’re not familar with how a DAS works, it’s essentialy a bunch of small cellular antennas that are mounted on ceilings and walls inside buildings, instead of on huge towers like traditional cellular antennas. A DAS network administrator provides normal cellular connectivity to users, and then connects those signals to the appropriate cellular vendor on the network’s back end. DAS deployments can also add Wi-Fi antennas to their infrastructure mix. ExteNet, like many DAS operators, can connect its back end to any number of cellular networks, meaning that fans don’t have to be a customer of a certain provider to get better in-stadium service.

The openness of ExteNet’s design may make it a better choice for stadium operators than an internal network designed and owned by a single carrier, since fans wouldn’t have to be customers of a specific carrier to get better service. ExteNet runs a network operations center 24/7 to provide support to all its networks, and signs a service level agreement (SLA) with both the stadium owner and its cellular partners to give both parties what they really want — happier customers.

No word yet from ExteNet on which carriers might be signing up to provide service to Nets fans. But it’s a big win for the relatively new player ExteNet, in a high profile installation.

Filed Under: DAS, NBA, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »