Sports Technology & Communications News from Around the World

Sports and technology are becoming more and more synonymous as we get further into the 21^st century. Sometimes, the tech goes along with sports in the form of the more functional, such as when talking about Wi-Fi in a stadium. Other times, the technology is more along the lines of entertainment, such as when crowd optic teamed up with the Philadelphia Eagles. Now, i.TV has launched a mobile application that has a different kind of spin on the melding of entertainment, sports and the mobile platform.

The new application, available for iOS is being billed as a consumer social platform geared specifically to be paired with television. The application, called Spit is an app that tests fans’ ability to correctly predict the outcome of real-time plays during nationally televised sporting events. The application also allows for fans to challenge friends to play along with all the major sports leagues, as well as NCAA football and basketball.

Brad Pelo, i.TV CEO said in a recent statement that he understands sports viewers can be just as competitive as the players on the field and “Fans familiar with fantasy sports know that you don’t play during the game – you simply await the outcome. Spit allows you to compete with others in real-time while watching your favorite team lock horns with an opponent. Spit makes a game out of watching the game, encouraging users to become active participants instead of passive viewers.”

The application allows people to predict the outcome of the game, and the built-in chat feature means there is plenty of trash talking to be had while the games are going on. Once the game starts, players are given real-time questions such as “will the next play be a run or a pass?” There is a 10-second time limit along with variable point totals and the leaderboard in the application changes depending on whether right or wrong answers are scored.