Sports

Nintendo Switch Sports launched with a handful of games you’d kind of expect, like bowling, badminton, and swordplay, but after a free update dropping later this year, you’ll finally be able to shoot some hoops as well.

Following the introduction of live NBA scores, Threads will have live MLB scores “starting today,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced. You can see MLB scores by searching for a game while it’s happening or within one day of when it ends, according to spokesperson Alec Booker.

The company plans to “continue expanding live scores to cover more sports and leagues,” Mosseri said.

Update, June 13th: Added new details and an image from Meta.

What will we find there? NBC Sports writer Denny Carter might have the best guess, from this 2017 tweet:

Typical QB tweet: love my teammates god is good!

RB tweet: keep grindin

TE tweet: derp

WR tweet: the enemy speaks kindly & holds a knife

Following last year’s Quarterback series, Receiver premieres on Netflix on July 10th.

I’m a trail runner that switched from Garmin to an Apple Watch Ultra. I like to leave my heavy phone at home which meant installing (and paying for) WorkOutDoors and Footpath to fill that massive off-line mapping void. A native watchOS solution should make things much, much easier.

Here, let DC Rainmaker explain the new custom routes feature.

Following a shocking World Cup cricket win by the US over Pakistan, people are learning about players like Super Over hero Netravalkar. Other than being a “zippy left arm quick bowler with an efficient action capable of swinging the ball in both directions,” he’s also an Oracle software engineer.

If you need to become a cricket expert before next Wednesday’s matchup with India, try this explainer.

The FIA’s “nimble” cars will be shorter and lighter, and a new hybrid setup increases battery power from 120kw to 350kw with “manual override” for boosted overtaking. There’s active aero now in the front and back, but DRS is gone.

That’s all great, but I’m still looking through articles and podcasts to find one saying how this adds up to a Lewis Hamilton championship with Ferrari.

It’s live in 20 countries now and will reach 25 by July 1st. Warner Bros. Discovery also has bundle deals in place with providers like Telefonica and Vodafone.

In these European countries, Max will be the only way to stream every 2024 Olympic Games event live, it offers “double the amount of content” versus HBO Max, and House of Dragons season two will premiere on June 17th.

After plenty of teases and licensing news, EA is showing off the official covers for its NIL-enabled College Football 25 game, which is returning after a decade-long break. Even if they don’t have the backup QB from Texas, EA has signed the starter, as its cover features Quinn Ewers alongside Michigan running back Donovan Edwards, and Colorado wide receiver/defensive back Travis Hunter.

CNBC reports a tie-in with Lucra Sports will eventually enable customers to bet against each other on games like Skee-Ball.

But even if you’re a degenerate with money on the line trying to convince a kid to Jontay Porter their next game, why use some app instead of cash? Also, in some places, D&B already has real gambling.

30 years after the tragic death of Brazilion F1 great Ayrton Senna, Netflix released a first look at its upcoming series based on his life.

Post-Drive to Survive and ahead of this weekend’s Miami GP, it’s clear how much F1’s popularity has grown since the Senna documentary in 2010, bringing in new fans who can learn about his story.

The split screen feature that pulls in up to four channels at once launched on smart TVs last year, and iOS last month — now it’s Android’s turn. Google spokesperson Allison Toh confirmed to The Verge that the launch started today, and said it’ll roll out to all Android phones and tablets over the next few weeks.

Following a report by Puck’s John Ourand that ESPN has carved out a piece of the new NBA media landscape, The Athletic added an Amazon rumor:

It is expected that Prime Video’s package will include significant regular season and postseason games, perhaps even some conference finals. The anticipation is that the final contract will be for at least a decade and begin the 2025-2026 season.

If the deals go through, this might add streaming NBA games on Thursdays when Amazon’s NFL games aren’t on.

According to the WSJ, Amazon, YouTube, and Peacock are all in the mix alongside incumbents Warner and Disney, with the possibility of snagging global streaming rights for some games.

When these deals kick in after 2024-2025, they’ll exist alongside the three-headed effort from Disney, Fox, and WBD, standalone ESPN, Netflix and the WWE, the NBA’s FAST channel and who knows what else.

Amazon continues to bolsters its sports offerings, this time by nabbing regional streaming rights for the NHL’s Seattle Kraken. Starting next season, Prime Video will be home to the team’s “non-nationally televised” games in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, including “preseason, regular season, and the first round of playoffs.” Bad news for subscribers if the Kraken make a deep run in 2025.

Aaron LaBerge is a big name at ESPN and Disney — he’s been there most of the last two decades, overseeing a lot of big projects including the recent Hulu / Disney Plus combination. He cited “personal reasons” for leaving in a note to staff, but also has a new job: after working on the joint betting project between ESPN and Penn Entertainment, he’s Penn’s new CTO.

Both companies filed affidavits in support of Fubo, which is suing to block WBD, ESPN, and Fox’s sports streaming package, The Desk reports.

DirecTV exec Rob Thun wrote that the company has “grave concerns” about the joint venture, saying it could prevent DirecTV from offering “smaller sports-focused bundles of channels.”

The latest entrant into the world of FAST (free ad-supported streaming, like Tubi and Pluto TV) is the NBA. Today it’s introducing the new, free, channel and the NBA Zone that will be exclusive to the Roku Channel for a limited time.

While it might try to upsell viewers to an NBA League Pass subscription, the only live games in it will be from the G League this season, along with highlights, classic games, and more.

ESPN’s digital plan is sort of all over the place. It’s building a streaming version of the cable network, it’s part of the “Hulu for Sports” coming later this year, and now it’s offering listings for some local sports — though you’ll still have to subscribe to your network and watch the actual games separately. Odd!

ESPN has long talked about being something along the lines of a TV guide for streaming sports; seems like this is what it looks like.

While Threads continues to test the waters of federation, the team is working on other features too. Continuing a push that started with “NBA Threads” outreach events around summer league and All-Star Weekend, and snagging posts from newsbreakers like Woj and Shams, it’s now testing live scores of NBA games and plans to add other sports.

Of course, it’s March, so why not start with the Women’s and Men’s NCAA basketball tournaments and bring in the NBA during the playoffs?

The app, which lets you get the latest on your favorite sports teams, view stats, and find betting odds, will now let you follow the NCAA’s March Madness tournament as part of its version 1.1 update. Apple Sports will also add data from the MLB when the season officially kicks off later this month.

An alternate game feed on ESPN Plus, Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Plus will present today’s Bruins vs. Penguins matchup as the NHL Big City Greens Classic 2. It goes beyond Nickelodeon’s slime-filled Super Bowl feed by using NHL EDGE positional data and Hawk-Eye optical tracking to turn real action into an animated version.

Sportico explains that to control their animated avatars, commentators have replaced the motion-capture suits they wore for the first game with Meta Quest Pro headsets.

This is a spectacular read even if you don’t care about car racing. Think “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved,” but with cars and much, much more money:

If a tornado came through and wiped the whole thing out, the stock market would plummet and the net worth of a country the size of Slovenia would vanish from the ledgers in a day.

With more than 8 million concurrent live streams for the event, spokesperson Allison Toh says Super Bowl LVIII is now the most-watched event ever on YouTube TV — and more broadly was the “most-watched telecast in history.”

TV is shaping up to be a focus for YouTube. Earlier in February, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced that the platform’s subscription TV service had more than 8 million subscribers.

The Department of Justice is planning to review the upcoming sports streaming app from ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox, according to a report from Bloomberg. Sources tell the outlet that regulators will look into whether the service will harm consumers, competitors, and sports leagues once the joint venture is finalized.

One live streaming service, Fubo, has already slammed the sports streaming app, saying it “could dictate market terms in a manner that may not serve the broader interests of consumers.”

After showing off a rendering, the NBA has now posted a clip of the ASB Lumiflex court installed in Lucas Oil Stadium for the Celebrity Game, 3-point shootout, and Dunk Contest that can show real-time stats, animations, and more.

For an idea of how it looks during games and how the LED panels under laminated glass are installed, check out this German video of the court being used for regular-season Bundesliga play.