New York Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge, #99, hits his 62nd home run to beat the Roger Maris home run record during the game between the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, on Oct. 4, 2022.
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Apple on Wednesday released a free new iPhone app for tracking sports scores, its latest effort to become a major provider of sports content and news.
The app, called Apple Sports, does one thing well: show sports scores from all the major teams and leagues. Users in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. can download it Wednesday, the first day of the Major League Soccer season.
Apple services chief Eddy Cue said the company designed the app to be fast and simple for multiple quick checks per day. It will stand out from other sports scores apps because Apple doesn’t represent a team or league and isn’t incentivized to engage users for long sessions, he said.
“You want your scores basically to be real time. You want them to be really easy to get to. And nothing else is getting in the way. And that’s the primary purpose of the app,” said Cue, hoarse from cheering at the Super Bowl, in an interview last week.
Apple has moved into sports in recent years by buying rights and airing Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer games, adding additional sports journalism to its News app and airing sports-related documentaries about teams such as the Golden State Warriors and the New England Patriots on Apple TV+.
Apple also bid for rights to National Football League games last year before losing out to YouTube, CNBC reported, and is expected to be a player in upcoming rights negotiations for the National Basketball Association. Apple, like Google and Amazon, sees major live sports events as a potential anchor for its streaming services.
This new app, which won’t come pre-installed on iPhones, is tightly integrated with Apple’s other Services apps, such as the TV app and News app.
For example, it will take the user’s existing preferences for favorite teams, sports and leagues from those apps, so when the Sports app is first opened, many will already see scores from their favorite teams.
Notifications and live activities are also handled by the Apple News and Apple TV apps, including existing features such as notifications for game start times or an alert for a close game the user is interested in.
Most game pages will include sport-specific information, such as…
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