Apple Sports app announced quick score check

New York Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge, #99, hits his 62nd home run to break Roger Maris’ record during the game between the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas on Oct. 4, 2022.

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Apple released a free new sports-score iPhone app on Wednesday, its latest attempt to become a major provider of sports content and news.

An app called Apple Sports does one thing well: it shows the sports scores of all the major teams and leagues. Users in the US, Canada and the UK can download it on Wednesday, the first day of the Major League Soccer season.

Apple services chief Eddy Cue said the company designed the app to be quick and easy for multiple quick checks a day. It will stand out from other sports scores apps because Apple doesn’t represent a team or league and has no incentive to engage users in long sessions, he said.

“You want your scores to be actually real-time. You want them to be really easy to get to. And not get in the way of anything else. And that’s the primary purpose of the app,” said Cue, hoarse from cheering at the Super Bowl, in an interview last week. .

Apple has moved into sports in recent years by buying the rights to broadcast Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer games, adding additional sports journalism to its News app and airing sports documentaries about teams like the Golden State Warriors and New England Patriots on Apple TV+.

Apple also bid for rights to National Football League games last year before losing out to YouTube, CNBC reported, and is expected to be a player in upcoming rights negotiations for the National Basketball Association. An apple, like Google and Amazonsees major live sporting events as a potential anchor for its streaming services.

This new app, which will not come pre-installed on iPhones, is tightly integrated with other Apple service apps, such as the TV app and the News app.

For example, it will take the user’s existing preferences for favorite teams, sports and leagues from those apps, so that when the Sports app is opened for the first time, many will already see the results of their favorite teams.

Notifications and live activity are also managed by the Apple News and Apple TV apps, including existing features such as game start time notifications or an alert for a closed game in which the user is interested.

Most game pages will include information specific to the sport, such as who scored, which players are on the field, or who is on first base. The sites will also include live betting odds, but users can turn them off in the settings.

Game pages will also often feature an Apple TV button. This means that the user can tap the button to watch the live stream of the game. It works for sports broadcast by Apple, as well as games on streaming services connected to the Apple TV app, many of which still require a cable subscription but will increasingly be available from over-the-top streamers.

“In an ideal world, when I’m watching the Duke game, it says open the TV app, I’d like it to take me to a basketball game,” Cue said. “And that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Namely, there is no special version for Apple’s new Vision Pro headphones, which are Apple’s best product for watching sports on a large virtual screen.

Cue talked about Apple’s desire to fix sports distribution even before Apple had a streaming service. He criticized cable guides in a 2016 interview with The Hollywood Reporter and how difficult it was to find a Duke game. In 2019, Apple gave Sports Illustrated a look inside the war room the company has built to track games and send notifications.

Cue said Apple does a lot of work behind the scenes to work with app developers and streaming providers to make their services work seamlessly with Apple’s services, for example. Apple’s goal is to make it simple and clean to find sports information and ultimately launch the game seamlessly with a few taps.

“As a big sports fan, it’s never been a better time, it’s never been worse,” Cue said. “The best time is when almost everything in the world is transmitted in some way. But it’s never been worse. Because of the amount of services, rights, blackouts, restrictions.”

Apple will also have features that will allow users to follow the March Madness college basketball tournament in the app, Cue said.

Here’s the list of leagues that Apple will support: