Review of Second Screen Sports Apps

Brief Review of Second Screen Sports Apps

ESPN ScoreCenter – mobile app

SportStream – mobile app and web app

Tagboard – web app

During a full college football Saturday, DSMSports.net did a quick review of these second screen sports apps. Here is what was observed (see more in the accompanying blog post)...

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ESPN's ScoreCenter App defaults to the 'Top 25' scoreboard, but this view shows the All NCAA FBS games.

Clicking the 'star' icon redirects the fan to any scores involving 'Favorite Teams' the fan previously noted with the App

The abbreviated info provided with this snapshot includes: TV [even non-ESPN] coverage, score, national ranking [where relevant], and time remaining

Footer allows for navigation back-and-forth between scores, videos, headlines, and national rankings

In-house advertisement banner at the bottom of the App page


Selecting a given game in ESPN's ScoreCenter takes one to a live feed of play-by-play with buttons to toggle to: 'Live' [play-by-play], 'Feed' [play-by-play and Twitter], 'Stats' [shown right], 'Videos', and 'Photos,' 'Discuss,' and 'Scores'

There are NO ads on this page nor interstitial ads shown when toggling between pages/tabs

The share icon at the top right allows one to email, tweet, and Facebook share this page

Note the extensive, advanced stats available and number of videos available to watch [auto-refreshes with fresh content]


ESPN's ScoreCenter 'Feed'

The Feed combines play-by-play with tweets from relevant media and team accounts

Fans can toggle to Live, Plays [all], Scoring Plays, Notes, and [only] Twitter

- appears Tweets with links are filtered (no links, media shown in Twitter feed)

Fans CAN interact with the tweets, but cannot compose original tweets from this page

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Reviewing each additional menu option of ESPN ScoreCenter:Videos are a great feature and big plays from the game are ready to review in short time

- NOTE: Despite ESPN's partnership with Twitter for in-stream highlights, this is a more personalized, faster place to get videos (especially since media in-stream is NOT shown in the Feed in prior slides)

Note that, nearing the end of this game, there are NO photos shown

- This could be combo of professional and fan photos

- No social media integration for these photos with Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. or opportunity for fans to share pics

The Discuss section was also dormant


SportStream's default screen for this game is the Stream, which is primarily tweets from fans, media, and personalities discussing the game

- Neither ESPN nor SportStream organizes their feed based solely on hash tag use

The icon in the upper right allows one to compose a tweet, but not to share the page

- NOTE: Tweets CAN be interacted with (like in ScoreCenter)

The Stream is comprised of all social posts, mostly tweets, that update at sometimes crazy volumes during the game (~ 1/second) with no official play-by-play (though most info is tweeted anyway)

Fans can toggle to 'Chat' and 'Stats' at the bottom

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The volume of posts to keep up with, especially for big games, can be overwhelming, at times, on SportStream

This can come into play because, unlike ScoreCenter, stats/time remaining/etc. are not readily available on the Stream screen so fans may have to toggle back & forth to view stats


SportStream's stats are not as detailed as ScoreCenter's but are easy to sort and get quick numbers

ScoreCenter allows fans to 'share' a stats page [using their universal share icon], but SportStream does not allowing sharing of stats(though fans using SportStream are likely more inclined to share tweets with stats in the Stream)


SportStream's feed turns intoa de-facto stream of social posts and play-by-play

The examples here show the diversity of posts with: official media, plays, and fan/writer sentiment (few from official team accounts)

- more subjective/contextual posts

- balancing giving context and valuable posts to Stream vs. overwhelming volume

Little to no media shown in stream, tweets with link & profanity filtered out


SportStream allows fans to easily compose an original social media post (unlike ScoreCenter) to Facebook or Twitter

The suggested hash tags are a nice addition and helps fans label their tweets and get into the Stream

Fans need only sign in once and can then compose messages, share photos, and interact with tweets in the Stream

No Instagram composing integration at this time


SportStream's Chat section clearly still has some bugs and garners little-to-no participation

Potential for future reforming of this future?

- create chat rooms for buddies

- integrate chat into the Stream or vice-versa

- invite “celebrity” (media, ex-player, pop culture) into chat

- contests/games integrated in chats w/ sponsors


One of SportStream's strongest features is the 'My Games' section, where the games one has checked out, or those containing favorite teams as noted in your App profile, are saved each day

- Revisiting games in ScoreCenter requires going through the entire process again (except for games with Favorite Teams)

- This allows one to easily revisit games one is following, even if those games do not involve a favorite team

- There is an additional feature where 'hot' games are shown for fans to check out


TAGBOARD allows one to aggregate social media posts from several networks (though Twitter comprises the majority of posts for most event) based on a single hash tag entered by the user. In this example, #Gators was tried (as a guess, no suggestions provided).


In this example, using #Canes, the aesthetically pleasing view of Tagboard is showcased with new posts updating automatically and media being shown where relevant (links, pics, etc.)

- One CAN compose an original tweet using the icon in the upper right- No advertising on Tagboard, which (for now) is a WEB APP ONLY- Tagboard is more utilized by teams to present/track tags relevant for them, not as helpful

to follow an individual game; one can view only one hash tag at a time (no tags are suggested)- Note ability to toggle between several social networks, well beyond SportStream &

ScoreCenter)

Brief Review of Second Screen Sports Apps

ESPN ScoreCenter – mobile app

SportStream – mobile app and web app

Tagboard – web app

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Review of Second Screen Sports Apps

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