After launching the popular Pro Football Live mobile application, Plusmo has unveiled the beta version of College Football Live, a free mobile application available on any smartphone and on Apple iTunes. College Football Live dubs itself as the only application of its kind that creates a “virtual stadium” experience, combining up-to-the-minute college football coverage with fun social features.

College fans can personalize the application to get one-click access to game-time action on their favorite teams. Plusmo delivers the best interactive college football experience on a mobile device with “end zone-to-end zone” updates and scores, game schedules, breaking news, stunning game-time visuals and the latest polls. In-progress updates are pushed right to your phone as they happen. In addition to the game-time action, what makes College Football Live even more exciting are the advanced social features that let users chat live with other fans, and cheer or jeer teams and players throughout the game.

I still believe though that football is best watched in HD.

Right To Play kicks off its online auction of athletes’ Olympic memorabilia and sports gear from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. In the ultimate show of sportsmanship, Olympians are donating items they hope will raise money in support of Right To Play programs. Right To Play is an international humanitarian organization that uses sport and play programs to improve health, develop life skills and foster peace for children and communities around the world.

Olympic athletes from around the world, including Canadian Kayaking champion Adam van Koeverden, U-S track and field star Lauryn Williams, British swimmer Mark Foster and Spanish basketball sensation Jose Calderon, are just some that are getting involved. Athletes are visiting the Right To Play booth in the Olympic Village to learn more about the auction. Some of the athletes are filming short video clips in the Lenovo i.lounge describing their journey to the Olympics. Video clips are then posted online with the visual, description of the auction items and starting bid.

The Right To Play online auction runs through August 25 and items will be added daily. Some of the items online will include:

1. Canadian Flag bearer and Olympic kayaker, Adam Van Koeverden, donated his Flag Bearer’s sash, signed by the Canadian Olympic team present at the Beijing Opening Ceremonies.

2. 2008 Olympic Handball Penant/Flag has been signed and donated by the Chinese Handball Team

3. Left hand prints on rice paper with signatures from a variety of Olympians in celebration of International Left-Handers’ Day

4. Signed Olympic Tennis Uniform (Swiss) donated by Timea Bacsinszky

5. Signed Olympic Badminton uniform (Ukraine) donated by Larisa Griga

ESPN.com and Orbitz.com has launched ESPN Sports Passport powered by Orbitz, an online community tool that gives sports fans a place to catalog and share their sports travel trips, game memories and milestones.

With ESPN Sports Passport fans are able to create and share an online catalog of their sports history, travel experiences and memories via blogs, photo and video sharing, stadium “collections” and more. The Sports Travel Passport integrates seamlessly with ESPN’s robust SportsNation online community and utilizes the same registration and ESPN Fan Profiles used by fans.

Online media marketplace Mochila is setting the gold standard for online distribution of Beijing 2008 Olympic news and feature content by allowing publishers to add content to their website with the latest in Olympic coverage, including articles, photos and video. Mochila provides one-stop shopping for the world’s best and broadest range of Olympic content, all free with advertising support.
 
Whether publishers are looking for video of the opening ceremonies, world-class finish line photos or updates of Michael Phelps’ amazing gold medal run, Mochila offers licensed, rights-managed content from top media brands covering the Games, including The Associated Press, The Guardian, Kyodo News International, Thomson Reuters, Getty Images and Zuma Press, to name a few.
 
Publishers are able to syndicate all of Mochila’s sports content through their full suite of ad-supported publishing widgets, including highly interactive video and photo slideshow players. Mochila’s widgets are available in many sizes and shapes, which can be customized to match any website’s look and feel. Mochila’s photo player plays photos in sequence or lets users easily navigate from image to image. The player provides publishers with a customized application to feature the world’s best photos from Mochila’s vast content repository, the world’s richest and freshest supply of high-quality rights-managed content. The widget application also provides monetization support for publishers with in-stream 300×250 rich media ad units.

Developer of popular mobile content and services delivery platform for smartphones Viigo Inc. has forged a partnership with The Globe and Mail, Canada’s online newspaper, to provide mobile interactive and real-time information from the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Users that select Viigo’s Beijing 2008 service will be automatically subscribed to a series of mobile information channels from The Globe and Mail relating to this summer’s Olympic games, including insightful broad news coverage, breaking news stories, individual competitor and country statistics, scores, medal results, and a listing of upcoming Olympic events. Users can personalize the information they get from Viigo, and can even customize their Beijing 2008 Olympic service by selecting specific sports and events to track in real time. From daily medal counts to the latest news and results categorized by sport, Viigo users can keep their finger on the pulse of this year’s Olympic games, anywhere and at any time.

Yahoo! Inc. kicks off the fantasy football season with new game features, mobile access, and Cleveland Browns’ wide receiver Braylon Edwards as Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football ‘08 cover athlete. This year’s game gives fans new tools, including a new draft application with extensive player data and more personalization options. Fans will also have better access via Yahoo! Mobile, including the ability to manage their teams, receive player news and injury information, and make roster changes.

Fantasy football allows users to build a roster of professional football players, through drafts, trades and free-agent signings, and then watch as the team’s success is measured by the on-field statistics of the players. Yahoo! Sports has offered fantasy football for 11 seasons, and fans can register for this year’s game through October 17, 2008.

Fantasy football users can also get all the advice they need right before kick off from Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football Live, the original pre-game fantasy football webshow entering its third season.

AOL Latino kicks off its coverage of the Olympic Games in Beijing with the launch of Fanaticos.com, a sports blog destination written by a team of seasoned sports writers from Mexico, Argentina and the U.S. The site focuses on soccer, baseball and boxing teams from the US, Mexico, Latin America and Spain, and will include coverage throughout the duration of the games. Fanáticos.com is supported by AOL’s digital advertising business, Platform-A, which will continue to offer relevant advertising opportunities in both display advertising as well as content-targeted links on the web site.

Online youth sports community Weplay announced the closing of $8.6 million in Series B funding led by Deep Fork Capital with participation from existing investors FirstMark Capital, Derek Jeter, LeBron James, Peyton Manning, and senior executives.

The funding will accelerate the company’s momentum as the fastest-growing online youth sports destination.
 
“We’re thrilled to have Deep Fork Capital join our existing partners Creative Artists Agency, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, FirstMark Capital and our founding athletes. The world of youth sport is currently held together  by email, clip boards and  telephone calls.   As the parent of a youth athlete, I want to make that experience simpler, safer and more fun for the millions of  parents, kids and coaches playing sports everywhere,” said Steve Hansen, CEO of Weplay. 

Adobe Systems Incorporated has formed a strategic relationship with CCTV International Networks Co., Ltd. to deliver the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games’ coverage through the web. The coverage will be delivered to millions of sports fans in mainland China and Macau through the “Olympic Network TV Station,” CCTV.com’s next-generation online experience based on Adobe Flash and Flex technology. CCTV.com owns the online video rights to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games for mainland China and Macau. With thousands of hours of competition video available on CCTVOlympics.com, the Olympic Network TV Station will allow sports fans to view the Olympic sports, athletes and country teams of their choice.

The Olympic Network TV Station will deliver viewers with:

- A web experience created with Adobe Flex and delivered via Adobe Flash technology, which includes Olympic results, statistics, comprehensive bios, rules and expert analysis from CCTV’s Olympic media team, as well as social networking features that will enable fans to share aspects of their Olympic experience with friends.

- 5,000 hours of on-demand protected streamed video content (3,800 hours of worldwide broadcast Olympic Games video and 1,200 hours of CCTV’s own video) including full event replays, highlights, features, interviews and encore packages.

Online sports community Weplay announced a three-year partnership today with Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc. Under the agreement, Weplay will become the official social network service provider and partner of Pop Warner.

As a part of the partnership, Weplay will provide a social utility platform that will allow any Pop Warner player, cheerleader, parent or coach the ability to create a unique profile, connect with each other, share pictures and videos, create blogs and more. Coaches, parents and administrators can also create groups for teams and squads to facilitate communication, share media, and enhance the relationships they make on the fields.