Imagine sitting in the stands at a baseball game holding a device that allows you to predict the next play. Will the batter hit a home run? Will he ground into a 6-4-3 double play? You can earn points based on your accuracy and can compare your stats with others in the stadium playing along.
Before smart phones and their associated apps, this idea would have sounded pretty far-fetched. Rewind 17 years or so and there was such a device—rentable at the Oakland Coliseum during A’s games for $20 plus a deposit (if my memory serves me right). Unfortunately I can’t recall the name of this device, nor could I find anything on Google. If you remember anything about the device, let us know in the comments section, or even just your thoughts about this concept.
Is this social media? Well, not quite. Scores were the only information being shared. I’m sure someone could develop an iPhone app similar to the original, with the added bonus of social features, and make a killing off this today. If you are so inspired, please give me a cut of the proceeds. In both cases, we are dealing with back channel communications.
On the final day of South by Southwest Interactive, Abby and I attended a panel discussion called Sports Media Distribution: Beyond the TV, where the discussion about back channel communications caught my attention. Current examples of back channel communications in sports include: conversations on Twitter, chat rooms or hashtags affiliated with a specific game, and apps with mid-game instant replay capabilities and live stats.
Panelists included John Zehr, general manager of ESPN Mobile, who prophesied that the 2010 World Cup will be a watershed event in distributing mobile content, especially live mobile content.
“We’re going to use the World Cup to really educate people and let them know they can view online,” said Zehr.
I’m not sure how I feel about the World Cup being a watershed event—this is reminiscent of the predictions that soccer would become America’s pastime after the 1994 World Cup. Sharing mobile content seems to be happening on its own, and if any major sporting event had the opportunity to be the “watershed event,” it would have been the Vancouver Games. Do you think we are about to enter into the era of mobile video sharing for sports?
Zehr also brought up the recent contract Verizon signed to be the NFL’s exclusive mobile content provider. I consider myself to be an average NFL fan, so I don’t see myself switching contracts from AT&T just to have access. A few people tweeted during the panel discussion to the same effect. Do you think super fans on other networks will switch just for this access, or is there enough other data out there on other networks to support their needs?
ESPN’s Zehr made an outstanding point regarding which sports stand to gain the most from mobile—those that tend to be highlight-driven. Baseball fits this mold perfectly, and I could definitely see myself pulling up a customized reel of last night’s video highlights while chowing down on my lunch. To make this really cool, and to give it a social edge, I want the opportunity to share the best clips with participants in my fantasy baseball league. How would you implement social media with sports and video content?
We obviously live in a world inundated with technology—phones, video, chat, text messaging, net books, and more. My takeaway from the sports distribution panel is that we are just starting to figure out what useful things we can do when you integrate consumer electronics, mobile technology, social platforms, and people. Just like the early adopters renting the stat predictor game at the Oakland Coliseum, you have the opportunity to share information in new ways. What will you do with it?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I think that something similar to Motley Fool Caps would be pretty easy to coordinate. Whatever the platform, it will not work unless those that participate are rewarded in some way. From what I have seen, fantasy sports has almost created a sport of people trying to predict what will happen at the end of a season. I would think that a micro-prediction system that is cumulative as well as monitoring recent trends would fit the bill of what you are trying to do. Who knows, maybe something like this could beat Vegas odds at the end of the day
When are we gonna put Capchure on your blog Jarad?
Aha – fantasy sports predictions vs stock predictions! I would have never thought of the connection. There are payoffs, or rewards, for participants in both (depending on how your fantasy league operates). I was not familiar with the CAPS community. Not knowing as much about investing as I probably should, I would be scared to dive in and be taken by someone(s) abusing the system by pushing bad penny stocks. Which gets to the heart of social – trust. And if you figure out how to predict sports event outcomes just as well as they did in Back to the Future II, don’t tell anyone other than me!
Major League Baseball is highlight driven, but it’s not very willing to share its highlights. It tries to control content very strictly (try to find Kirk Gibson’s homerun on youtube).
Maybe if they get the kind of deal the NFL got with Verizon things would be different? MLB is doing more this season with mobile media, but it won’t be free. Have you seen the $14.99 MLB.com At Bat 2010 iPhone app?