INTERNET
Bloomberg Kicks Some Fantasy Trading Butt
Posted by Jonathan in INTERNET on 05-20-10 No Comments
It looks like Bloomberg is taking a no-prisoners attitude towards sports data. The business news service recently rolled out its Bloomberg Sports trade analyzer and this slick tool is chock full of baseball lineups, stats, and other information. A tremendous tool for fantasy baseball players.
This isn’t any of that Web 2.0, free content nonsense, the service will cost you $25. Bloomberg does not care about finding an audience or using content to build a brand. The company, after making a deal with MLB.com, has produced a leading sports data tool, and expect consumers to pay for it.
Good for Micheal.
BAM Meets GOOG: MLB Advanced Media Hits Google I/O 2010 Geek Fest
Posted by Jonathan in INTERNET on 05-14-10 1 Comment
Hmmmmm here’s an interesting new meeting I wish I could be a fly on the wall for: MLB Advanced Media doing a sit down with the folks at Google out at Google IO, the annual Google geek fest going on in Frisco next week.
For sure MLB.com’s At Bat 2010 remains the gold standard for mobile sports. So Google is not critical to the company … yet. But it will be fascinating to see what opportunities MLB.com digs up using new Google tools like Rave, Google Apps Marketplace and advances in Android.
If BAM continues it market dominance in sports technology, which they probably will, look for some styling new features for baseball apps, particularly for Google-based products. Yankees- Red Sox on Rave?! That’s an interesting idea
Mizzou Football Tracks Racy Tweets
Posted by Jonathan in INTERNET on 05-13-10 No Comments
It used to be keeping track of the team was all about watching the kids on Saturday night. Not anymore.
The Missourian is reporting that the University of Missouri football program is using a sophisticated computer program to track 414 racy, dangerous or otherwise unwanted terms on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media platforms used by football players.
The service called UDiligence flags coaches when terms like doobie, cocaine, booze or similar words show up in the social sphere. The system, called reputation management for college athletes, accounts fo misspellings, grammatical mistakes and other potential syntactical oddities that hide the intent of the posts.
The story says Dan Hopkins, athletic director at the universitym gets say 10 messages a day alerting him of potential transgression online. There was no comment on whether players have been busted. UDiligence claims several dozen college clients. And to see the antics programs like these have to deal with, take quick test drive through the “What we find” page.
Ah to think this is where all those scholarships go.
World Cup To Be One Big Online Gambling Party
Posted by Jonathan in INTERNET on 05-12-10 No Comments
Call me crazy, but there might just be a little bit o’ bettin’ goin’ on during this World Cup thang.
The BBC is reporting that food, booze and yes, betting is expected to flow like the Irish floods during this summer’s world wide soccer tourny. Though Dan and I have no idea how one would actually place a bet online — since it is illegal here — it appears to us that the boost in gambling on soccer on the Web is set to break records not only in England but worldwide in June.
Already web gambling sites are setting up for the World Cup rush. Betinternet.com is hosting wagering on the 32 teams. There is the World Cup Spread Betting Blog. And garsh darn it, there are even traditional books on the topic: “The Essential World Cup Betting Guide for the 2010 World Cup” is one.
What are all these betting fools looking at? Probably the single largest pay day in gambling history. Figure a third of the world’s population, or something like 2.5 billion, will see these games. Let’s say maybe 10 percent of those place a $50 bet. That’s 250,000,000 (two hundred and fifty million) active wagerers who pony up $12,500,000 ,000 (12 billion 500 million) over the course of the month. That works out about the GDP of say, Ireland, Iceland or Jamaica. Figure 6 points go to bookies … You do the math.
In other words, a LOT of effin’ money. Stay tuned TSC, will be all over who’s up or down in this big fat story.
Five Borough Bike Tour Rides Nowhere Online
Posted by Jonathan in INTERNET on 05-04-10 No Comments
It looks like Trey Wingo’s cool ESPN jobs is safe for now. Socially created sporting events probably wont be posing much of threat.
Last weekend, north of 32,000 bikers rode a bit more than 42 miles through New York’s five boroughs in the Five Borough Bike Tour. This annual rite of spring here in the Big Apple is a cyclist’s dream: The city closes everything from 6th Ave to the BQE to the Verrazono Bridge to car traffic so cyclists can take a leisurely ride through the city. And the event has never been more popular. The Tour sold out within 5 days from its Feb 1 on-sale date for the $50 registration fee. And the aftermarket for credentials was brisk: VIP passes were going for north of $200 online.
You got that right, there were Bike Tour scalpers.
But one area that was not hot for biking in New York was online. Despite having all the trappings of an instant sports network, a la Frisbee golf or Rollberderby, the Bike Tour was a nonevent in new media. Literally, nobody participated in various Bike Tour online events. And I mean NOBODY. The YouTube “Channel” had no comments, 45 total subscribers, and get this, this year’s video clip was viewed all of 46 times! My niece’s Bat Mitzvah did better than that. Ouch.
The point here is, as any American hockey fans will tell you, a popular sport both in person and in the media is a delicate balance between the sport and the way it is covered. And the magic events that master that balance, like the NFL, are not found on trees.
The fact is, not matter how social, participatory, or popular some sports are, for some reasons they will never find a large audience either in old media or in new. And biking looks to be a perennial media loser.
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Episode 51: “The Pirates Really Are Broke!”
Seth breaks down the body mechanics for Strasburg’s Tommy John surgery. Yes, he’s effed. Blum takes a peak at the freshly leaked financial data for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Yes, they’re broke. Dan does new technology at the USOpen. Yes, they’re new racquets. And Boise State is a BCS contender. Yes, Blum’s a stone cold idiot. (29.1 MB: [...]
Episode 50: “It really is a woman!”
Blum and Dan get into some sex … the sex of South African runner Caster Semanya, that is. Then Seth chimes in on the new NFL.com fantasy league, complete with in-game video clips. Blum breaks down FanPageList.com, the site that ranks the social networking power of athletes. And finally is oxygen during a mixed martial [...]
Episode 49: “Welker’s Not Cheating … He Really, Truly Is The Bionic Man”
Seth joins us for his take on the BlackBerry sports apps: 212 of em flat out suck. And Dan the Pats Fan only gets a touch defensive breaking down Wes Welker’s “remarkable” return from a torn ACL. While Blum digs into the cutting edge of TV sports technology from IBC2010 trade show. And everyone gets into [...]
Episode 48 — “Spain’s Putting HGH In The Water”
Dan makes it back from the beach alive, so we break down the cutting edge in NFL Preseason analysis: Old school print mags. Blum is agog at the Triple Crown winner in auto racing. Dan talks up the X-Games. And we wonder what drug is in the water in Span. They’re winning everything, everywhere. (24.1 MB. [...]
Episode 47 — “Lance is Gettin’ Screwed”
Dan takes a much needed vacation poolside so Blum flies solo this week. Seth The Technihilist calls in with the latest scoop on tech tools to keep his Pirates awful. Blum plays the Old Course, on Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online, that is. And we throw a techno-bone to Lance: There’s no way he doped [...]
Episode 46 – “Show Em Your Big Fly Stick”
Dan and Blum give it up to King George Steinbrenner. then Blum breaks down some big bats for big home runs. And Dan gives us the skinny on EA’s NCAA Football 11. And finally what a royal jerk Lebron really is. (7/15/2010. 29.1 minutes)
Episode 45 – “They’re All Takin’ Drugs”
Dan, Blum, and Seth wonder out loud what the world needs with Sirius’ new all fantasy sports channel. Dan gets sucked into the Back to the Future vibe and brings us sports technology in 2015. Blum sees an All-Star conspiracy in Kevin Youkilis not getting on the All-Star team. And with Floyd Landis spilling his [...]
Episode 44 – “The age of free stuff is over”
Can Sports Illustrated save themselves with a fancy iPad app? Plus: Why high school can’t afford to protect their football players with modern helmets, a look at what FIFA could do with goal-line technology, and Jonathan found some “interesting” items at the Outdoor Retailer Show. [7/1/2010, 30:29m]
Episode 43 – “This is the geek’s delight”
Seth, the tech nihlist, thinks 3D television is just going to be a rich guy’s thing and has a long way to go. Plus: Jonathan philosophizes on technology and the ever-changing sports medium, Dan got to play with the Xbox Kinect and wants to have its baby, and a little airplane tech from the Red [...]
Episode 42 – “We make the invisible visible”
TSC brings in Ron Imbriale from Flexxcoach to discuss their innovative software/video solution for regular athletes. Plus: The inflatable motorcycle crash suit, a discussion of Abby Sunderland’s failed around the world sailing trip, and we look at what ESPN on the Xbox really means for sports fans. [6/16/2010, 31:32m]
