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September 2016

Sep 12

DraftKings Launches New Live Sports App: DK Live

By Sports app
[toc]DraftKings has already dabbled in the content of daily fantastic sports, in addition to running his own contests.

This effort has gotten more serious with the recent launch of a new mobile app – DK Live – a product separate from its platform and its DFS application.

DK Live at a glance

DK Live is billed as the digital and fantastic version of “NFL RedZone” by DraftKings. CEO of DraftKings Jason robin unveiled DK Live at TechCrunch Disruption in San Francisco today.

“Our team built DK Live with the fantastic player in mind, creating an experience that’s right for every fan and connecting them to the content that matters most to them,” Robins said in a press release. “DK Live is our latest way to give sports fans the best technology and experience by eliminating frantic screen hopping between different apps and websites on game day. “

Currently, the new offering is available for iOS in the App Store, with plans to eventually launch a Android version. The app is powered largely by data provided by STATS LLC, which DraftKings also uses for its core app.

Zoom on DK Live

The app is not necessarily revolutionary in the idea that it provides sports information to fans, although the app outperforms other fantasy-based apps in its ability to provide information based on what a DFS player wants to see.

“The goal for us is really to have the experience of sweating your lineups and your sports media consumption beyond DraftKings,” Corey gottlieb, vice president of content at DraftKings, told Legal Sports Report in a product demo.

What’s in the app?

  • Strong points: A filterable section allows users to see every red zone play, touchdown, turnover and gain over 20 yards for live games.
  • Notes: Users can see all game scores including a game’s scoreboards to follow a game feed for individual games.
  • News: The news section includes the latest player news and injury updates from Twitter, RotoWire and FantasyLabs, among other news sources. DK Live also builds on a relationship with Inside Injuries, which analyzes the impact of injuries.

The coolest thing about DK Live: DraftKings users can customize the app based on their fantastic lineup for that week. Users who also have the DraftKings app can filter information so that they only receive information relevant to their fantastic queues.

“This is the real differentiator for us, for a DraftKings user,” said Gottlieb. “It all has to do with the players you made decisions about when you were drafting. “

Will people adopt DK live?

DK Live intends to be a one-stop-shop for everyday fantasy football players, allowing them to easily consume information for any players and teams they want, fantasy sports related or not.

“We think it’s a perfect second screen for people who watch games live and for people who are trying to follow their players,” said Gottlieb.

However, the application is separate from the traditional DraftKings application, where players can assemble queues, enter contests, and track their performance against other DFS players in those contests.

Yet DFS users often still use two or more apps or websites to track sports – the app (s) for their DFS competitions and a sports app / website. Gottlieb argues that no product on the market is aimed so much at the DFS user, with the fantastic level of customization available on DK Live. This gives it a head start as a potential sports source, at least for DFS players.

Can DK Live make a dent in a space already filled with a myriad of apps providing real-time sports information? If DraftKings and other users find it different and useful enough, that potential exists.

Sep 02

Penn State students create pick-up sports app, hope it will curb pick-up game mayhem | University Park Campus News

By Sports app

Three Penn State students have created a pick-up sports app that could make aimless texting friends looking for a pick-up game a thing of the past.

Farabi Sameer (junior aerospace engineer) said the idea for First Pick — an app Sameer, Dilanka Dharmasena and Patrick O’Connor created this spring to organize sports matches on campus — came to them when they were trying to play football in the rain last year.

“You can play football in the rain, but do you really want to walk two miles in the rain only to find no one else showed up?” Samir said.

He wanted a way that he could make a game and anyone could tell he was from a smartphone.

The app, which allows users to create games on different terrains and click “in” if they want to attend, went live in mid-July.

Sameer pitched his idea to his Entrepreneurial Mindset (MGMT 215) class instructor, Richard Weyer. He approached Weyer after the first class and asked for advice on how to start the project.

“[Weyer] pretty much helped me with the business side ever since,” Sameer said.

Sameer met Dharmasena (second year computer science student) through a mutual friend in October 2015, and they started conceiving the app design. Sameer and Dharmasena realized they might need more help with the project, so Dharmasena invited O’Connor (a sophomore in computer science) to join the team in the winter of 2016.

All three received help from Penn State through the Summer Founders program. According to its website, the program aims for students to commit full-time to working on a business or product idea over the summer without doing an internship.

The program gives six companies funding of $10,000 each to work on their project for a 10-week period from late May to early August, Sameer said.

“We were one of six recipients out of 60 groups that applied,” Sameer said.

The app’s simple interface – which is still being tested and fine-tuned – has already attracted more than 300 users, Dharmasena said. One such user, Christian Pozotrigo (Junior Energy Engineer), said the app takes all the guesswork out of finding games.

With this app, Pozotrigo said he knows exactly when people are getting together, rather than just going to the fields and hoping there’s a pick-up game to join.

“Before we had this app, I didn’t know where there was a game to see if the grass was booked by other people, but with First Pick, it’s now solved,” said Jianyi Li (graduate student in mechanical engineering). “It works every time.”

Sameer said the only type of publicity they did for the app was going to the fields and asking people to try it.

“Word of mouth has been really successful so far,” Dharmasena said.

Now that the fall semester has begun, Sameer said he eventually wants to create targeted Facebook advertising or distribute flyers.

Dharmasena hopes to have as many people as possible using the app on campus by the end of the school year and perhaps even partner with off-campus organizations. “You can pretty much use [First Pick] anywhere,” Sameer said.

The trio hope to expand to other college campuses in the future.

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