AUSTIN, TX. — Count Don Garber among the folks who are looking forward to video assistant referee technology being used during Major League Soccer matches. The MLS commissioner was in Austin, Texas on Saturday for a 1-on-1 fireside chat at SXSW, the annual conference that features a bevy of top sports leaders talking about how technology is changing their respective games. Garber, interviewed on stage by Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl, voiced his support for the video assistant referees (VAR), which were tested during the preseason and will be used during actual games after the MLS All Star Game this August. The… Read More
If you’re looking to fill out a March Madness bracket online, ESPN and Yahoo are two platforms that likely come to mind. Now you can add Twitter to that list. The company today announced a new partnership with Wendy’s that will let users create NCAA basketball brackets directly through Twitter’s Direct Message platform. It’s the first time that Twitter is enabling bracket building through its site. Starting this Sunday, fans can create a bracket on Twitter. You can manually pick each game or use “Magic Bracket,” which automatically fills out the bracket based on personality quiz answers, or “Quick Start… Read More
In 2014, Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto ran a marathon in Berlin in 2:02:57, setting the world record for the fastest time in the event. Now, he’s facing intense competition not from another runner, but from a company. For two years, Nike has been working to design a shoe that would allow runners to break the two-hour mark in marathons, something that’s been impossible in the past. On Tuesday, the company finally unveiled the shoe that it plans to use to help someone break Kimetto’s record this spring. The Nike Zoom Vapor Elite is the result of innovative design and new material… Read More
Seasoned Major League Baseball managers who think they’ve got a beat on player performance by counting pitches and so forth will soon gain access to more detailed data analysis. The league announced Monday that it had approved the use of biometric monitors to be worn by players during games. ESPN reported that the device, manufactured by Boston-based Whoop, is the first of its kind to be allowed during competition in any American sports league. Players in leagues such as the NFL, NBA and MLS often wear monitors in practice, but not in games. ESPN says teams cannot force players to wear… Read More
Twitch just got a lot more social. On Monday, the Amazon-owned video-game streaming company rolled out a new social media tool called Pulse. The feature allows users to post messages, photo and video for the friends and followers. Other streamers can comment or react to your posts. It essentially mimics Facebook, but on Twitch’s platform. Unlike Facebook, posts will appear chronologically, at least for now. In a blog post announcing Pulse, the company said it’s working on an algorithm to discover content based off your interests. “Our goal is to connect viewers with the content that they’re most likely interested in,”… Read More
