5 ms·

Introducing the Facebook Sports Stadium

71 points by pmcpinto 11y ago

jcrites 11y ago
Neat concept. Presumably lets all the sports-interested people congregate, while I assume also helping keep sports-related content away from folks who are not interested. There's probably a lot of pent up user demand for "what people do online while also watching the game" - I notice they position the feature as "second screen". Seems like a good tailored innovation for social media. This will also potentially prove to be a way to claim some of the ad dollars spent on sports advertising. There are probably more advertising dollars willing to target messaging around a game than can afford primetime slots. Imagine the effectiveness of ads with the viewership of sports while targeted with the context of a user's FB account. They might be able to draw ad dollars away from TV, or benefit from pent up demand for more advertising opportunity. It'll be interesting to see how sustained its popularity proves to be during sports games - if consistent I suspect it will be lucrative while also making users happy. Sports is an interesting nexus of the problems that FB has chosen to focus on. Content that's social, but digital, and real-time. I've noticed that, though I can obtain most TV and movie content that I want to watch online digitally, live sports are one of the holdouts. I wonder if success at Sports Stadium might help FB get a crack at streaming them live online, down the road. (1) The advertising could be way more effective if each user is shown a targeted video ad based on the context of their FB account - cable has limited (no?) personalized advertising (2) The alternating intensity and natural breaks in sports games means users accept existing advertising, and embrace it (Super Bowl Ads). FB must be thinking about ways to leverage FB accounts for effective targeting advertising in more contexts while also delivering compelling user value at the same time - sports seems like an interesting candidate for expanding in that way. A user wouldn't want to link their FB account to their TV for no reason, for example, but if FB can find its way into user experiences like that naturally - such as streaming and discussing sports online - then they'll be able to capitalize on their ad targeting power. I also see a potential connection to Oculus Rift here. Imagine if you could watch the game live in 3D over Occulus Rift - an extension of Sports Stadium and perhaps a viable application for Occulus. FB must be searching for the "killer app" that makes Occulus users both want to use it en mass, and also congregate online socially. Perhaps 3D sports is just the thing. It will probably take some doing to record and play live 3D video suitable for Occulus, but if they can pull off an experience that "makes you feel like you're there", with 3D and immersive audio, too, then given folks' interest in sports I could see it going somewhere. (Watching regular 3D movies on an Occulus is not so compelling by comparison. Live action sports or broadway plays will be something else entirely.) Killer app: put on the Occulus and feel like you're in the sports stadium watching the game right from the field.
- TheFA 11y ago
  Next time the rights come up for auction all it takes for gaining the streaming material for sport is cash, be it NFL, NBA, EPL, MLB etc,
linux_devil 11y ago
Real time score updates displayed on Google cards is also helpful, but creating a platform so engaging will be clean and unique.
Cypher 11y ago
Live stream and chat didn't we have this in 2009?
petepete 11y ago
It's an interesting idea. I'm not sure how well it will work, and how 'noisy' it will be. If anyone's ever followed a busy match thread[0] on reddit they'll know what I mean. I'd like to give it a try, but not sure it'll be replacing FotMob[1] any time soon as my goto place for team news, scores and tables. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/29l7v1/match_thread_united_states_vs_belgium/ https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/29l7v1/match_thread... [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobilefootie.fotmobpro https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobilefoot...
- jcrites 11y ago
  Reddit threads are indiscriminate. I'd expect Facebook to filter the content to intelligently include posts from people that you know and correspond with frequently. There will probably be even more activity total across the system, but you'll see messages that you have a greater chance of caring about. I suspect one of the goals of this product is to help sports fans group together, while also keeping sports-related content off the newsfeeds of non-sports-fans.
why-el 11y ago
To me this can evolve to compete with Snapchat if they continue to penetrate interesting social circles like Sports and live Music events.
galfarragem 11y ago
Great spam filter for FB News Feed page.
joefarish 11y ago
What I really want is the ability to remove spoilers about sports events / TV shows from my news feed.
- davnicwil 11y ago
  Yes! Reading this I was thinking exactly the same - if they've worked on a way to group the sports posts and comments by game etc, perhaps they'll also let you filter them out of your feed using the same metadata, so that spoilers are no longer an issue. I think this could actually benefit them, as well as just being a nice feature. As it is I personally avoid Facebook entirely after some games until I catch the highlights, because I know with certainty that I will see the result on my feed.
trm42 11y ago
Hopefully Facebook moves all sports-related status updates to that app, not interested in people's empty shouting where the ball, puck or fist went.
santiagobasulto 11y ago
Would they support Ultimate?
esseti 11y ago
Super innovative way to share videos and screenshots.. in a zip file. ;)
kcorbitt 11y ago
When I saw the title I was really hoping that this would tie in with their Oculus purchase to have a stadium experience for live sports in VR. :D
noir-york 11y ago
Twitter must be pissing themselves. This is the twitter stream, without the noise, in Facebook.
- utnick 11y ago
  yea following sports games is one of the biggest use cases for twitter and something they are the best at. I'm interested to see how well this works. Seems like most of the good analysts currently post on twitter instead of facebook so that could be a limitation... but if they get a bigger audience on facebook now, that could drive them to change.
  - pcora 11y ago
    on my case, since I don't follow sports is checking the weather. it's sad because I really like twitter but I don't see a bright future for them.
- eropple 11y ago
  I had the exact opposite reaction: "This is Twitter, but without all the interesting bits from people I don't follow." A lot of the benefit of watching Twitter when I have a game on is having funny or informative stuff wander my way. Facebook is more insular than I like, and frankly I'm not close enough to the people I like watching sports "with" on Twitter to have them on Facebook.
SimonPStevens 11y ago
I've been thinking about this for a while, but I'm going to write down my prediction so in years to come I can point back to this post and say I saw it coming. Prediction here -> They will make a VR version of this sports stadium app. It will become the biggest use case for VR (outside of geek circles). Social sports viewing is VR's 'killer app'. It is what will take VR mainstream, and I believe it's the main reason for Facebook's purchase of oculus. Imagine a VR sports stadium where users can sit in their own lounge, with their VR headset on, next to a avatar of each of their friends, who are in their own lounges. Everyone can have the best seat in the house. The virtual capacity of the stadium is physically unbounded. The VR adds the atmosphere that watching the TV doesn't provide. It also avoids the major VR problem of how to move around in the virtual world, because you don't have to. In the VR world you are sitting in a seat, just like in the real world. Perhaps in many years time, no one will physically attend sporting events at all.
- unknownzero 11y ago
  If this was a real non gimmick thing it would absolutely the thing that got me to buy a VR setup. I can't say I like the drawn out conclusion of nobody ever attending in person though. I wouldn't want to see a world where nobody ever showed up to hockey games in real life, that just seems sad and dystopian to me.
- rickdale 11y ago
  Thats actually a pretty popular prediction. I remember back in 2008 talking about virtual reality seats at the 50 yard line of the super bowl. It's probably right. I would love to put on VR and play the last set at Wimbledon. I am a dreamer...
- piptastic 11y ago
  Wait a decade or so after that and the games themselves will be played in VR.
- spike021 11y ago
  Not so sure about this opinion actually. Whenever I go to baseball games at AT&T Park in San Francisco, there's just something about the energy in the stadium, the sights of the park and surrounding area+views, the "different" (using that word loosely here) food, the cold foggy/windy night games, etc. You can get there early and try to get autographs, which not everybody is into but it's a cool benefit. You have a chance of catching foul or homerun balls. I think using a VR version of this app would definitely be better than TV, but I wouldn't necessarily say it becomes any more of a comparatively better experience. I don't think it can quite match watching a game live and at the stadium itself.
xd1936 11y ago
I'm surprised that this exists. They just did a spring cleaning of apps, discontinuing Facebook Rooms, Slingshot, etc.
- lojack 11y ago
  Seems to me like this would free up resources to work on and experiment with other ideas that may or may not end up panning out.
osi 11y ago
Is the the emergence of their Sportstream acquisition? https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/sportstream#/entity https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/sportstream#/entity
ultimatejman 11y ago
They need to make being a part of the action as easy as using a hashtag. People already watch games with fb open on their phone/laptop so not too much behaviour change needed. Just a smooth way to get people to this part of the platform at the right time, ideas: I would do this by sending a notification to users who support a team page, when their team is about to play...
pjc50 11y ago
From the title I thought, "uhoh, Facebook have bought a stadium": http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/enron_field_curse http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/enro... As others have said, this looks like FB trying to capture the anarchic live commenting/participation behaviour from Twitter. I've never seen anyone attempt to do anything "live" on Facebook, that was always Twitter's ballpark.

71 points by pmcpinto 11y ago

Neat concept. Presumably lets all the sports-interested people congregate, while I assume also helping keep sports-related content away from folks who are not interested. There's probably a lot of pent up user demand for "what people do online while also watching the game" - I notice they position the feature as "second screen". Seems like a good tailored innovation for social media. This will also potentially prove to be a way to claim some of the ad dollars spent on sports advertising. There are probably more advertising dollars willing to target messaging around a game than can afford primetime slots. Imagine the effectiveness of ads with the viewership of sports while targeted with the context of a user's FB account. They might be able to draw ad dollars away from TV, or benefit from pent up demand for more advertising opportunity. It'll be interesting to see how sustained its popularity proves to be during sports games - if consistent I suspect it will be lucrative while also making users happy. Sports is an interesting nexus of the problems that FB has chosen to focus on. Content that's social, but digital, and real-time. I've noticed that, though I can obtain most TV and movie content that I want to watch online digitally, live sports are one of the holdouts. I wonder if success at Sports Stadium might help FB get a crack at streaming them live online, down the road. (1) The advertising could be way more effective if each user is shown a targeted video ad based on the context of their FB account - cable has limited (no?) personalized advertising (2) The alternating intensity and natural breaks in sports games means users accept existing advertising, and embrace it (Super Bowl Ads). FB must be thinking about ways to leverage FB accounts for effective targeting advertising in more contexts while also delivering compelling user value at the same time - sports seems like an interesting candidate for expanding in that way. A user wouldn't want to link their FB account to their TV for no reason, for example, but if FB can find its way into user experiences like that naturally - such as streaming and discussing sports online - then they'll be able to capitalize on their ad targeting power. I also see a potential connection to Oculus Rift here. Imagine if you could watch the game live in 3D over Occulus Rift - an extension of Sports Stadium and perhaps a viable application for Occulus. FB must be searching for the "killer app" that makes Occulus users both want to use it en mass, and also congregate online socially. Perhaps 3D sports is just the thing. It will probably take some doing to record and play live 3D video suitable for Occulus, but if they can pull off an experience that "makes you feel like you're there", with 3D and immersive audio, too, then given folks' interest in sports I could see it going somewhere. (Watching regular 3D movies on an Occulus is not so compelling by comparison. Live action sports or broadway plays will be something else entirely.) Killer app: put on the Occulus and feel like you're in the sports stadium watching the game right from the field.

TheFA 11y ago
Next time the rights come up for auction all it takes for gaining the streaming material for sport is cash, be it NFL, NBA, EPL, MLB etc,

linux_devil 11y ago

Real time score updates displayed on Google cards is also helpful, but creating a platform so engaging will be clean and unique.

Cypher 11y ago

Live stream and chat didn't we have this in 2009?

petepete 11y ago

It's an interesting idea. I'm not sure how well it will work, and how 'noisy' it will be. If anyone's ever followed a busy match thread[0] on reddit they'll know what I mean. I'd like to give it a try, but not sure it'll be replacing FotMob[1] any time soon as my goto place for team news, scores and tables. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/29l7v1/match_thread_united_states_vs_belgium/ https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/29l7v1/match_thread... [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobilefootie.fotmobpro https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobilefoot...

jcrites 11y ago
Reddit threads are indiscriminate. I'd expect Facebook to filter the content to intelligently include posts from people that you know and correspond with frequently. There will probably be even more activity total across the system, but you'll see messages that you have a greater chance of caring about. I suspect one of the goals of this product is to help sports fans group together, while also keeping sports-related content off the newsfeeds of non-sports-fans.

why-el 11y ago

To me this can evolve to compete with Snapchat if they continue to penetrate interesting social circles like Sports and live Music events.

galfarragem 11y ago

Great spam filter for FB News Feed page.

joefarish 11y ago

What I really want is the ability to remove spoilers about sports events / TV shows from my news feed.

davnicwil 11y ago
Yes! Reading this I was thinking exactly the same - if they've worked on a way to group the sports posts and comments by game etc, perhaps they'll also let you filter them out of your feed using the same metadata, so that spoilers are no longer an issue. I think this could actually benefit them, as well as just being a nice feature. As it is I personally avoid Facebook entirely after some games until I catch the highlights, because I know with certainty that I will see the result on my feed.

trm42 11y ago

Hopefully Facebook moves all sports-related status updates to that app, not interested in people's empty shouting where the ball, puck or fist went.

santiagobasulto 11y ago

Would they support Ultimate?

esseti 11y ago

Super innovative way to share videos and screenshots.. in a zip file. ;)

kcorbitt 11y ago

When I saw the title I was really hoping that this would tie in with their Oculus purchase to have a stadium experience for live sports in VR. :D

noir-york 11y ago

Twitter must be pissing themselves. This is the twitter stream, without the noise, in Facebook.

utnick 11y ago
yea following sports games is one of the biggest use cases for twitter and something they are the best at. I'm interested to see how well this works. Seems like most of the good analysts currently post on twitter instead of facebook so that could be a limitation... but if they get a bigger audience on facebook now, that could drive them to change.
- pcora 11y ago
  on my case, since I don't follow sports is checking the weather. it's sad because I really like twitter but I don't see a bright future for them.
eropple 11y ago
I had the exact opposite reaction: "This is Twitter, but without all the interesting bits from people I don't follow." A lot of the benefit of watching Twitter when I have a game on is having funny or informative stuff wander my way. Facebook is more insular than I like, and frankly I'm not close enough to the people I like watching sports "with" on Twitter to have them on Facebook.

SimonPStevens 11y ago

I've been thinking about this for a while, but I'm going to write down my prediction so in years to come I can point back to this post and say I saw it coming. Prediction here -> They will make a VR version of this sports stadium app. It will become the biggest use case for VR (outside of geek circles). Social sports viewing is VR's 'killer app'. It is what will take VR mainstream, and I believe it's the main reason for Facebook's purchase of oculus. Imagine a VR sports stadium where users can sit in their own lounge, with their VR headset on, next to a avatar of each of their friends, who are in their own lounges. Everyone can have the best seat in the house. The virtual capacity of the stadium is physically unbounded. The VR adds the atmosphere that watching the TV doesn't provide. It also avoids the major VR problem of how to move around in the virtual world, because you don't have to. In the VR world you are sitting in a seat, just like in the real world. Perhaps in many years time, no one will physically attend sporting events at all.

unknownzero 11y ago
If this was a real non gimmick thing it would absolutely the thing that got me to buy a VR setup. I can't say I like the drawn out conclusion of nobody ever attending in person though. I wouldn't want to see a world where nobody ever showed up to hockey games in real life, that just seems sad and dystopian to me.
rickdale 11y ago
Thats actually a pretty popular prediction. I remember back in 2008 talking about virtual reality seats at the 50 yard line of the super bowl. It's probably right. I would love to put on VR and play the last set at Wimbledon. I am a dreamer...
piptastic 11y ago
Wait a decade or so after that and the games themselves will be played in VR.
spike021 11y ago
Not so sure about this opinion actually. Whenever I go to baseball games at AT&T Park in San Francisco, there's just something about the energy in the stadium, the sights of the park and surrounding area+views, the "different" (using that word loosely here) food, the cold foggy/windy night games, etc. You can get there early and try to get autographs, which not everybody is into but it's a cool benefit. You have a chance of catching foul or homerun balls. I think using a VR version of this app would definitely be better than TV, but I wouldn't necessarily say it becomes any more of a comparatively better experience. I don't think it can quite match watching a game live and at the stadium itself.

xd1936 11y ago

I'm surprised that this exists. They just did a spring cleaning of apps, discontinuing Facebook Rooms, Slingshot, etc.

lojack 11y ago
Seems to me like this would free up resources to work on and experiment with other ideas that may or may not end up panning out.

osi 11y ago

Is the the emergence of their Sportstream acquisition? https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/sportstream#/entity https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/sportstream#/entity

ultimatejman 11y ago

They need to make being a part of the action as easy as using a hashtag. People already watch games with fb open on their phone/laptop so not too much behaviour change needed. Just a smooth way to get people to this part of the platform at the right time, ideas: I would do this by sending a notification to users who support a team page, when their team is about to play...

pjc50 11y ago

From the title I thought, "uhoh, Facebook have bought a stadium": http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/enron_field_curse http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/enro... As others have said, this looks like FB trying to capture the anarchic live commenting/participation behaviour from Twitter. I've never seen anyone attempt to do anything "live" on Facebook, that was always Twitter's ballpark.