It’s fitting that Apple unveiled its new sports app for the iPhone — aptly named Sports — just as baseball players were showing up for spring training to get in shape for the upcoming season. That’s because Apple’s sports app needs a little more time on the practice field before it’s ready to hit the field.
Don’t get me wrong — as far as a simple score app goes, Apple’s Sport is fine. But “good” and “simple” aren’t really the ultimate goals when Apple makes a product — especially when there are already tons of sports apps that do what Apple is trying to do, and display all that information in a better way.
In other words, even if you consider Sports a work in progress — and it’s hard to spend time with the app without thinking that Apple has a lot to fine-tune here — you’ll be hard-pressed to make it your default choice over ESPN, TheScore , CBS Sports or any other well-established option.
What you can do with Apple Sports
Apple’s Sports app exists for one purpose only — to answer the question “What’s the score?” There’s some additional information there — you can look up stats and upcoming games, and team standings are visible in multiple locations in the app. But above all, you’re here to find out what the score is for any current game and who won any recently played games.
Looking for news and video highlights? Look elsewhere, my friend — especially in the Sports tab of the News app. Sport is for sports results, and News is for sports news, and never the twain shall meet. (Besides the fact that you can find the results in the News app too, though it takes a bit more digging to get there, which is probably what motivated Apple to create a separate app for the results of its own.)
There’s one more thing the Sports app features besides scores and times for upcoming matches — you’ll also find betting lines, which appear quite prominently on the page, just below the kick-off times for all upcoming matches and just below the results box for completed matches. You can turn off betting odds if you want by going to the Settings app and following the Sports settings, but the odds are there by default without any visible way to turn them off in the app itself.
I’m hardly the first person you should turn to for a lecture on clean and virtuous living, but I’m bothered by the methodical creeping of gambling into every corner of the sports media, including this Sports App. I suspect that in a few years we will look at the inclusion of sports betting invitations the same way we now look at tobacco advertising. So yes, it’s disappointing to see Apple jump into the bookies.
Either way, it’s easy enough to set up the Sports app to follow your favorite teams — especially if you’ve already done so via the My Sports feature that Apple introduced in iOS 16. If you follow teams and leagues in the News app, it’ll sync with the Sports, provided that the latter application supports those teams and leagues.
As of this writing, you can use Sports to follow the NHL, MLB, and a host of soccer leagues including MLS (which Apple broadcasts as part of the Apple TV Plus add-on.) Basketball is also supported—at least the NBA and college hoops are. The WNBA will likely join the mix when the season begins this summer, with NFL results to follow in the fall.
What you get with Apple Sports
The first time I launched the Sports app, I was greeted with a screen showing today’s matches. It was completely blank except for the “No games today” message. I switched to the Upcoming tab to see the future games on the schedule – it was also empty.
It took me a moment to figure out what happened, but that’s because Apple Sports has defaulted to the My League view, and right now the only leagues I follow — MLB and NWSL — are both in the preseason. (The Sports app doesn’t think exhibition games are something you need to worry about, and on that front, the app and I violently agree.)
But wait – I’m also following Chelsea’s exploits in the English Premier League. Shouldn’t their surely disappointing game at the weekend appear on the Upcoming tab. No, the Sport app decided because I follow the Chelsea team, not the Premiership as a league. If I want to see what’s up with Chelsea, I have to use the menu in the top right corner to switch the My Leagues view to the My Teams view. I can also jump to teams and leagues I don’t follow, though that involves even more tapping.
This approach is quite different from, say, the ESPN app. ESPN will put your favorite teams and sports near the top of the page, but will also include other sports results. There’s always something going on in the ESPN app, even if it’s not something you necessarily want to follow. Still, I find that approach less annoying than being greeted with a blank Apple Sports screen if nothing I’m watching is on.
When a match is in progress, you will see the start time, the teams involved and their records. If a game is currently in progress, Sport will show you the score and time of the game (innings in baseball, periods in hockey, and so on).
Tap on a game in progress and you’ll see stats for both teams (just below those ever-present gambling gambits, of course). There are also switchable cards for play-by-play — basically condensed text updates on what’s happening in the game — and a scorecard with ongoing player stats.
Handily, there’s also a button to watch if the game is being broadcast, though tapping it will take you to the TV app on your iPhone. Tap the Watch button there and you’ll be taken to any streaming service app that carries the game. I realize it’s a limitation that Apple currently only offers MLS and MLB streams through its own streaming service, but all that jumping around just to watch a game feels a bit disorienting. Such is the fate of sports fans in the age of streaming, I suppose.
Apple Sports: What’s Missing
The frustrating thing about the Apple Sports app is that it doesn’t really differ from other score apps, except for what it doesn’t have. Take the ESPN app for example. It’s easy to find the same results with the same information that Apple’s offering includes — but ESPN also has video, whether it’s live coverage via ESPN Plus or video highlights.
Again, that may change as Apple adds its own live sports streaming. But right now it gives the Apple Sports app a placeholder feel.
Try as I might, I haven’t seen a way to follow a game through the Apple Sports app so that it appears as Live Activity, either at the bottom of my lock screen or up in the Dynamic Island area on an iPhone with that feature. I suspect that will come in a future update sooner rather than later.
Some sports are also conspicuously missing from the app, and I’m not talking about off-season offerings like the NFL. As I write this, the UEFA Champions League is in the middle of its knockout stage, but you wouldn’t know it from Apple Sports, which doesn’t include football’s biggest club cup competition despite allowing you to follow teams from the Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga and Ligue 1. It’s a glaring omission.
Apple Sports: Outlook
There’s nothing wrong with Apple Sports that can’t be fixed, whether it’s the addition of more sports or the arrival of built-in video options that will apparently be phased out these days. But the sameness Apple Sports shares with apps with a similar focus is a bit disconcerting if you’re familiar with Apple’s other iPhone offerings.
Apps like Notes, Weather, and Reminders that are built into your iPhone don’t necessarily reinvent the wheel when it comes to things like note-taking, weather forecasting, and task management. but they provide these services in an elegant package that uses Apple’s iOS software. Sports don’t, at least not yet. And that makes it an app I’m less and less likely to tap when I want to know the score.