Apple today announced the launch of Apple Sports, a new free app dedicated to providing sports fans with the latest scores and stats from their favorite teams.
The app covers NHL, MLB, men’s and women’s basketball as well as many soccer leagues including Premier League, Serie A, MLS, La Liga and Bundesliga. When you first set up the app, you’ll be asked to tell it which leagues and teams you’re interested in (if you haven’t already done so in Apple News); From here, you can choose to tailor your view to show recent, current, or upcoming matches involving either your favorite leagues or your favorite teams.
At this point, there are a number of surprising limitations, suggesting it’s still half-finished. The most obvious gaps are in supported sports and leagues: the NFL is not yet covered, although Apple insists this will be available for the upcoming season. (Oddly, Apple says the same thing about MLB coverage in its press release, but it’s already available as a selectable favorite in the app, even though there are no games close enough to be listed.)
Moving away from the traditionally most popular sports in the United States, this reporter was surprised to see the absence of any media coverage of cricket. After all, it’s the second most popular sport in the world, behind football. It’s also the second largest sport in the UK, one of three countries Apple Sports is initially launching in (along with the US and Canada). Indeed, it is worth mentioning that the United States will host the Cricket World Cup later this year. But of course, Apple, continues to ignore cricket.
Functionally, Apple Sports is limited by a strict focus on leagues and an apparent unfamiliarity with cup matches. (A Chelsea fan in the igamesnews office laments that his team’s cup final on Sunday is not listed, while the less important league match was postponed to make room for it. East.) It’s also strange that you can’t go back further than yesterday to see older results, or more than a week in the future. And there’s no news tab, nor any long-term match schedule.
A possible clue to the creators’ priorities can be found in the betting information (each team’s odds, spread, etc.) listed prominently for some matches. Apple doesn’t like even the appearance of moral turmoil, so it’s hard to see this developing into a full gambling feature, but the option is there and would be extremely lucrative. Ultimately, of course, Apple will want the Sports app to tie into its live stream of games on Apple TV+. It will be interesting to see how this evolves from here, but for now, it won’t replace your sports app of choice.
