901am » Sports

PlaySportsTV.com expands website for youth sports coaching

Dennis Bouchand — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:40:37 +0000

Doug Donaldson was all set to rely on his playing experiences from an athletic childhood when he agreed to coach his son’s youth basketball team. But when the first day of practice arrived and the group of second-graders looked up to their new coach, he was just as confused as the kids. How was he possibly going to give them the best coaching and instruction?

PlaySportsTV, the website that Donaldson created in 2006 as a result of that experience and which is now the leading on-line youth sports coaching and instructional resource in the US, has launched a newly redesigned website, making it easier for youth coaches and parents to teach young athletes.

To coincide with the launch of its new website, PlaySportsTV is introducing a variety of web-based training plans for many of its sports. New training plans released by PlaySportsTV include Coaching Youth Baseball for T-ball through Little League, featuring Princeton Univ. baseball coach Scott Bradley; Slide Like a Pro for Little League baseball players; Coaching Girls Softball; Coaching Youth Soccer for kids aged five through eight; How to Play Striker for more advanced soccer players; and Coaching Youth Lacrosse.

It’s March Madness online via CBSSports.com

Cristina Ledesma — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:20:33 +0000

CBSSports.com, in partnership with CBS Sports, CBS College Sports Network and the NCAA will provide a live online broadcast of the Men’s Final Four semifinal and championship games of the 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship via NCAA March Madness on Demand. It will be just the second time ever that a major U.S. sporting event has been shown live and in its entirety on the Internet.

The 2009 Men’s Final Four features the University of Connecticut, Michigan State University, the University of North Carolina and Villanova University. The official web sites for all four schools participating in the Men’s Final Four are managed and produced by CBS College Sports.

NCAA March Madness on Demand can be viewed through a standard video player and a High-Quality option, both offered free of charge.

The Sports Network, Contec to offer mobile sports services

Cristina Ledesma — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:40:52 +0000

The Sports Network and Contec Innovations announced the upcoming availability of their new global mobile sports service in early 2009.

The new global mobile sports service provides unprecedented mobile access to all things sports. Covering more than 50 sports and hundreds of leagues and events from around the world, this initiative allows mobile users around anywhere to access up-to-date news, photos, results, statistics, live action and more.

Available via mobile Internet, SMS and MMS, the service has three distinctive audiences in mind at present: mobile operators seeking to enhance their sports offering, mobile service providers that wish to add new services to their portfolios and media companies/brands that sponsor mobile Sports content in their local markets or on a global basis.

Commodore Gaming inks partnership with MLB

Dennis Bouchand — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:49:11 +0000

Major League Baseball Properties has licensed Commodore Gaming the rights to produce personal computers and PC cases decorated with artwork and themes associated with all MLB teams. Now customers of Commodore Gaming and Major League Baseball fans can own top-notch personal computers that represent their passion for their favorite ball team. From the Windows desktop theme to the exterior of the PC a MLB Series Commodore Gaming computer is decorated with the team artwork.

The companyâ€™s exclusive â€œC-kinâ€ high-definition paint process is designed to produce visually-stunning PC exteriors. Commodore C-kins are not stickers or vinyl layers, but chassis panels permanently decorated to a finish much like an automotive paint job. High-definition artwork is baked on metal case at 350 degrees Fahrenheit then covered with a durable anti-scratch layer for protection and shine. The result is beautiful and extremely durable.

MLB.com off-season package delivers live baseball this winter

Dennis Bouchand — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:01:24 +0000

MLB.com has launched its exclusive offseason subscription package with the live streaming of the championship game from Major League Baseball’s prestigious prospect development league, the Arizona Fall League, on November 22 at 2:30 p.m. EST.

The offseason package, which is available now at MLB.TV,, is highlighted by nearly 50 hours of exclusive coverage from the annual Baseball Winter Meetings, which begin on December 8 and will culminate with MLB.com’s live pick-by-pick streaming of the Rule 5 Draft on December 11. Shane Victorino of the World Series Champion Phillies, 2008 Home Run Derby champion Josh Hamilton and two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana are among the players chosen in past Rule 5 Drafts.

Additional benefits to offseason package subscribers include:

On-Demand Video and Audio – Re-live the many milestone performances, great games and dramatic finishes from the regular and postseason in their entirety on-demand or utilize the video linescore feature to view any half-inning from any game in 2008.

2008 Winter Meetings – Subscribers can access exclusive live coverage from Las Vegas, highlighted by breaking news, interviews, live press conferences and the 2008 Rule 5 Draft.

Spring Training 2009 – Live video and audio broadcasts of more than 100 select 2009 Spring Training games from the Grapefruit League and the Cactus League as players prepare for Opening Day.

Baseball’s Best – Unlimited access to watch baseball’s greatest games and performances from the Emmy Award nominated Baseball’s Best Moments series through the end of Spring Training 2009.
MLB.com shop discount – Receive a 10% discount off the next purchase from the MLB.com shop. Offer expires on April 8, 2009.

This is a good way to stir interest to baseball during off-season. For me, I’m 100% focused on football during winter.

NBA team launches social network with KickApps

Dennis Bouchand — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:14:49 +0000

KickApps announced that the New Orleans Hornets have launched a social network for fans of the team powered by KickApps. The website is a destination for the supporters to gather online with other fans to share their passion for the Hornets and NBA basketball, create, share and discover fan submitted photos, videos and blogs, and interact exclusively with official club content.

Using social media, the Hornets capitalize on an opportunity to increase their connection with fans by extending the Hornets experience beyond the basketball court. The new website features its own social network with video and photo sharing functionality, forums, and the ability for members to take video and photos from the site to other social networks, blogs and websites using Hornets branded video and photo widgets.

To tip-off participation and activity on the site, the Hornets are holding a competition for fans to name the social network. Fans simply join the network and leave a comment with their proposed name and why they chose it. Additionally, the team has uploaded behind the scenes videos of the Honeybee cheerleaders and press conferences, with additional unique programming planned.

The New Orleans Hornets joins the Phoenix Sunsâ€™ Emmy Award winning PlanetOrange.net, New York Knicks, Phoenix Mercury, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, New York Rangers and Arena Football League, as teams that have embraced the KickApps Platform.

Gamescampus.com, MLB Advanced Media to launch free online baseball game

Cristina Ledesma — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:58:09 +0000

Game publisher GamesCampus has signed an online interactive licensing agreement with MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball, granting it the right to incorporate official Major League Baseball league and club marks and logos, MLB ballpark images and more in its upcoming micro-transaction based online baseball game, MLB Dugout Heroes. It will be a free PC-based baseball game, expected to be available in North America for the 2009 baseball season.

The multi-year agreement gives GamesCampus the rights to all current and historical Major League teams, ballparks, All-Star teams and jewel events such as the home run derby. GamesCampus will also have rights to the official 2009 Major League Baseball regular season game schedule, enabling fans to simulate real seasons through actual game and series matchups.

Fans can expect a casual online baseball experience with a threeâ€“dimensional, cartoon-rendered graphic style and easy to pick up and play mouse-only controls. The game will offer four different modes of play for fans to choose from: tutorial, practice, single player and multi-player. Fans will be able to experience the fun of strategically managing a Major League Baseball club by forming a team, fostering its players and making all of the base-running, batting and pitching decisions â€“ providing true interaction with on-the-field baseball play. With realistic character motions and unique verbal exchanges occurring between pitchers, batters, and color commentary, MLB Dugout Heroes will offer a truly unique and engrossing baseball game play experience â€“ free of charge.

ESPN, StubHub expand relationship

Dennis Bouchand — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:18:11 +0000

StubHub announced that its relationship with ESPN has been expanded to include television, radio, mobile and more robust online properties.

The agreement builds upon the successful implementation of StubHubâ€™s ticket service across ESPN.com which began one year ago, further establishing a convenient destination for fans to search for tickets to sporting events nationwide.

StubHub and ESPN bring together a dynamic integration platform that will increase visibility of the StubHub brand across multiple channels, including:

StubHub as the exclusive tickets provider on all ESPN Mobile properties
StubHub featured in new integrated widget technologies
StubHub ticket centers and deep integration to have expanded presence on ESPN.com
Integration and sponsorships with popular ESPN telecasts
ESPN Radio Promotion, including popular personality Colin Cowherd

Wanna play some fantasy Cricket?

Dennis Bouchand — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:57:07 +0000

Global Cricket Ventures announced the launch of Cricket.com Fantasy Cricket to coincide with the start of the 2008 India-Australia cricket series in India.

This is the first major product launch at Cricket.com, which is being developed as the premier DestinationHub for the world’s more than one-billion cricket fans. Fantasy Cricket has already registered more than 750 team entries in the first 24 hours of operations as a result of the immense global popularity of cricket and the large amounts of direct navigation traffic to Cricket.com, the worldâ€™s most intuitive online cricket brand. Going forward, Cricket.com Fantasy Cricket will be tailored for use on mobile devices and all major social networking communities, and follows the successful launch of GCV’s Facebook Fantasy Cricket in spring 2008, which became the leading fantasy cricket program on Facebook.

The first Cricket.com Fantasy Cricket competition will run through the calendar month of October 2008. The winner of the inaugural fantasy cricket competition will receive an Xbox 360.

Wazoo Sports to broadcast Army Bowl

Dennis Bouchand — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:43:11 +0000

If you can’t have enough of football, here’s another one for you. Wazoo Sports, a high school sports broadcast network, will air online the 33rd Annual Army High School Football Bowl live from McAdams Field in Fort Knox, KY. The Fort Knox Eagles will host the Fort Campbell Falcons Friday, October 3, 2008 at 8:00PM ET.

Wazoo Sports will kick off pregame coverage at 7:45PM ET. Pregame will feature special messages from players whose families are deployed around the world.

Wazoo Sports aired 120 basketball games during the 2007â€“2008 basketball seasons and will broadcast approximately 50 high school football games during the 2008 Football season. Wazoo Sports also provides unlimited ON DEMAND viewing of all their content.