In April, Facebook announced the creation of “chatbots,” which are essentially interactive AI bots that can communicate in common language for companies and other organizations to connect with their consumers. This is all done through Facebook’s Messenger platform, which boasts around 900 million users.
Immediately, this idea looked big for the sports world, with regards to promoting fan engagement and spreading digital media in a different manner.
Now, the first sports media company has created a chatbot—that company being theScore. The Toronto-based, mobile-focused sports media group has a strong following on Facebook, with 2.7 million likes.
Their chatbot works much like how a regular sports news app, like ESPN might work on a phone, but inside the Facebook Messenger platform. You can contact the chatbot by clicking “Message” on theScore’s Facebook page.
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So far, the chatbot feels like a hastily made project, designed in part to be the first sports media chatbot live and online for Facebook. It operates on the same level as theScore’s mobile app and does not do much of what one might expect out of a chatbot.
It is not conversational, and only responds to specific textual commands. For example, upon clicking “Message” you are prompted with a message asking you what sports teams you would like to follow. So, you type in whichever teams you would like to know about and the chatbot follows that team for you. With this, you get game updates and team news sent directly to your Messenger account or app.
There is still quite a bit of room for sports media companies to break into the chatbot sphere, as more of a conversational element to the chatbot would be welcome. Asking about facts or scores in a more natural way is the next step for Facebook chatbots and sports.
theScore should be credited for leading the sports chatbot charge.