Seems there are nearly as many wireless March Madness applications as there are teams in the men’s NCAA basketball tournament.
First-round games tipped off this morning, and hoops fans have plenty of ways to track the action — and their savaged brackets — on their phones. From simple text alerts to portals to a downloadable application, carriers and developers — and at least one participant — are hoping to use the high-profile, two-and-a-half-week event to push mobile data into the mainstream.
Some of the more notable examples:
Sports Illustrated is using the tournament to tout a beta version of MySI Mobile, a free downloadable application that delivers personalized sports content. The offering, which was developed by Action Engine and runs on Windows Mobile-enabled handsets, allows users to select favorite teams and access scores, schedules and standings with a single click. Fans can also receive news feeds, set calendar events and access photos from the venerable sports magazine.
AT&T Mobility added a March Madness portal to its Media Net service, delivering video highlights from each game as well as news, scoring updates, polls and NCAA basketball trivia. The service also includes a text-polling feature that allows users to help select winners of the 2008 Naismith Trophy, which is awarded to the top men’s and women’s player of the year.
Yahoo launched a mobile widget for users of its Go 3.0 product and a dedicated mobile tournament Web site. The widget delivers continuous updates, news and images from Yahoo Sports and Rivals.com, while the site allows access to the widget-based offerings and integrates with the company’s oneSearch offering. Jaguar is sponsoring the effort.
Mobile media company go2 launched a wireless site focused on the tournament that offers game and telecast schedules as well as up-to-the-minute game results. Content will be generated by go2 correspondents and will include game previews, breaking news and background information.
Both 4INFO and go2 will continue to offer free text alerts for followers of the tournament. Both offerings include scoring alerts for every game; 4INFO’s also includes compelling “upset alerts” that informs fans whenever a favored team is behind in the waning minutes of a game.
Zumobi rolled out team-specific widgets for 25 tournament schools, allowing users to customize their Windows Mobile phones with updated information. Each team tile includes player information, news, scores and stats and can be downloaded from the company’s mobile Web site.
Georgetown University is touting a mobile marketing campaign centered on the Hoya’s hoop dreams. Georgetown fans can send a text to a short code to retrieve information regarding the team’s open practice session; the service has been promoted during Washington Wizards games at the Verizon Center, where the Hoyas will play in the first (and perhaps second) round.
Fans with brackets in ESPN can track their picks from a mobile device and the preeminent sports broadcast also offers mobile video analysis from talking heads such as Craig Bilas, Digger Phelps, Dick Vitale and Hubert Davis. The company also launched a moble portal offering news, columns, matchup breakdowns and a live blog from the Final Four.
