Bluepod Media brings Bluetooth to football stadiums

Simmer down, NFL fans -- we're talking real football here, so we'd recommend hoping a flight to Europe if you're interested in taking advantage of this. Reportedly, Bluepod Media has inked exclusive BT marketing rights with a bevy of Premiership football clubs including Blackburn Rovers, Birmingham City, West Ham, Portsmouth and Wigan Athletic (among others). The deal was worked out after successful trials at Portsmouth and Birmingham City, and going forward, Bluepod will be working with third-parties to "create and distribute branded content to football fans within all stadiums on match days." Best of all, said content will be offered up to attendees gratis, while brand owners will be shelling out cash on a per download basis. Don't worry, dear Americans, you can always order up a hot dog from the comfort of your Safeco Field seat with your DS -- how's that for a consolation prize?

[Via IntoMobile, image courtesy of Hobo Tread]

[britboyJ @ Jan 18th 2008 9:04PM]

Wolves and Celtic are not Premiership clubs. There're Scottish Premier League Clubs.

Big difference.

[digitalh @ Jan 18th 2008 9:37PM]

Since when are Wolves Scottish? Hm?
Dig the REAL football reference. Engadget just etched a few more notches in my book.

[KBrew @ Jan 18th 2008 9:12PM]

Please don't try to stick Wolves in the SPL, it's bad enough already. They're a Coca Cola Championship team.

Mon The Hoops!

[ilh @ Jan 18th 2008 9:13PM]

Wolverhampton is in Scotland? Or do you mean the Edinburgh Wolves American Football team?

[LondonConsultant @ Jan 19th 2008 5:11AM]

I smiled at the "we're talking REAL football here" bit... :-)

[Slappywag @ Jan 18th 2008 9:16PM]

I've said it before, and I will say it again. Soccer sux. It is not REAL football. I'd like to see these guys go up against an NFL team and survive one quarter. They expect a yellow or red card when they get run down. In the NFL, that's perfectly legal. :-)

[eduardo fuentes @ Jan 18th 2008 9:34PM]

most of the world disagrees with you.

[fitinferno @ Jan 18th 2008 10:00PM]

Oh it's real football. It's the only football that makes sense. Look what happens, foot+ball=football. It's a penalty if the ball encounters the hands. Whereas, whatever is played in America should really be called handball or some crap like that. Their foot touches the ball, what, a few times during the entire game?

Oh, and the reason that move is legal in the NFL is because those people are under layers of padding and have a helmet on top. If they removed all that crap, the fat cows wouldn't stand a chance in hell against REAL footballers.

[holycow @ Jan 18th 2008 10:06PM]

FOOTball mainly means played using feet. And the real football or as you call it soccer does exactly that, whereas in American football they use their hands most of the time.

[holycow @ Jan 18th 2008 10:07PM]

fitinferno beat me to it.. oh well :(

[Reader @ Jan 18th 2008 10:17PM]

Your the reason everyone stereotypes against us Americans. Please stop giving them ammo.

[Reader @ Jan 18th 2008 10:19PM]

you're* :(

My excuse is I just woke up

[Dextro @ Jan 19th 2008 2:54AM]

Our term of football is absolutely the correct one, just as some have already explained.
Bring your NFL guys over, no problem. Let's stack 'em up against our rugby boys ... without all the fancy padding. I've seen the superbowl one or two times ... i mean really??

[Joe Marriott @ Jan 19th 2008 9:58AM]

Flashback to the episode of Friends where Ross plays rugby.

[Constable Odo @ Jan 19th 2008 3:38PM]

I think you mean that American football is for behemoth he-men bruisers and not some feather-weight soccer guys running up and down the field in their T-shirts and bermuda shorts.

However, soccer is mostly played with feet, hence the term football. In America they only kick the ball with a foot a few times in a game for field goals.

Which is the sport for real men, I do not know. I'd prefer to have some padding in either sport. I'm sort of delicate in my old age and would rather play either on a PS3 rather than on a real field.

[Andy @ Jan 18th 2008 9:22PM]

ello govna!

[The Grand Master @ Jan 18th 2008 9:29PM]

Your incredible impression of a British person is astounding several British people reading it.

You should go on stage with that...

[Fernando @ Jan 18th 2008 9:31PM]

real football! fuck yeah!

[britboyJ @ Jan 18th 2008 9:53PM]

Yes, sorry. Wrong Wolves. It's been a while since I lived in the UK.

[mattbrown @ Jan 18th 2008 9:55PM]

Real football? And you're from where?

[mattbrown @ Jan 19th 2008 7:22AM]

Wow, that ranking says something about the Engadget readership. Not surprising since most of you swoon when Steve Jobs coughs.

[Jevanzz @ Jan 19th 2008 8:53AM]

You suck dick.

[monkfishbandana @ Jan 19th 2008 7:29PM]

E71; you suck dick also.

[holycow @ Jan 18th 2008 10:09PM]

So how exactly does this work ? Like those bluetooth enabled advertisements at the bus stops and stuff ?

http://www.teleclick.ca/2007/05/pepsi-uses-bluetooth-technology-in-interactive-advertising-campaign/

[Josh* @ Jan 18th 2008 10:13PM]

Hey! I live a minute or five from the Birmingham City grounds. Will I be in range? ;)

[holycow @ Jan 18th 2008 10:32PM]

"Using a small electronic box that is able to push digital content to mobile phones within a 100m radius..."

[Josh* @ Jan 18th 2008 10:36PM]

Thanks! Never read the full article as you can probably tell.

Nope, I'm not in range :p

[connorcam_ @ Jan 20th 2008 5:59AM]

Keep Right On!

[majortom @ Jan 18th 2008 10:15PM]

while I agree that soccer should be called football, and indeed it is in the rest of the world, one should also call it really bad acting class 101. I have never seen so many "hurt players" get back up once they faild to sell their case to the ref.

[Reader @ Jan 18th 2008 10:20PM]

NBA is about the same. Watch a player fly backwards 3 feet and in the replays the person him never even made contact.

[Mobius_1 @ Jan 18th 2008 10:50PM]

ROFLMAO at Dida against Celtic!!

[Bryan @ Jan 19th 2008 12:11AM]

I'm not sure any of those clubs qualify for the moniker of "real" football either, sure Blackburn is one of originals and Pompey has been decent as of late, but come on Birmingham..Wigan, sure they try....

Sorry Hammers, almost forget ya...since Tevez left(was he ever really yours) its been an uphill battle

[digitalh @ Jan 19th 2008 1:51AM]

We got him. Don't hate. COME ON, YOU REDS!

[jeeesus @ Jan 19th 2008 10:01AM]

city for the cup!

[jeeesus @ Jan 19th 2008 10:01AM]

manchester city

not manchester united

[b1tchell @ Jan 21st 2008 9:08AM]

No it hasn't, were in the top half of the table, not exaclty an uphill battle.

[VZWguy @ Jan 19th 2008 10:57AM]

the ide behind this would be AMAZING in the US sports world

a lot fo the crowd listens to the home announcer while at baseball games, now you can do it via BT
a lot of fans would rather listen to THEIR home teams broadcast...now you cna, with BT
imagine stats, streaming advertising, and any number of other things you cna do while streaming audio via BT headsets


seriously i had this idea a long time ago, but I lack the know how to build a large scale BT network that can rebroadcast a signal on such a HUGE scale, not to mention the cost of the investment, or technology.

now, as I understand it
there is a channel discoverable by devices, then you connect, and stream it like music though your phone? otherwise how would you connect JUST a headset to the network?

[Ryan @ Jan 19th 2008 2:45AM]

Sure, NBA players flop to take a charge, but soccer players roll around on the ground like they've just been shot with a grenade launcher anytime they stub their toe. You can't watch the Dida clip against Celtic or any Italian World Cup match and not be completely and utterly ashamed to be a fan of the sport.

For the snobs who use the "most of the rest of the world blah blah blah" nonsense: I'm certainly not one of those right-wing, arrogantly patriotic folks, but who cares? Unless you live there, it doesn't matter what they watch. The home of videogames loves linear games with feminine metrosexual anime heroes, but I'll take all the first person shooters and open-ended western RPGs I can get...

[Hookey @ Jan 19th 2008 5:32AM]

No-one cares that the US plays its own sports, its when they co-opt the name of the most popular team sport in the world and try to get the rest of us to call our sport something else that people get annoyed. Its strange how Brits manage to cope with different codes of football and not get confused, but America feels the need to come up with "soccer".

Back on topic, it seems pretty vague about the type of content you get; adware probably.

[Liam @ Jan 19th 2008 8:47AM]

Depends on the league. In Italian football, yeah rolling around is common practice, but in most other places it'll just earn you a bad reputation. Hence when Christiano ACTUALLY gets fouled, there's every chance the ref will allow play to continue, or even give him a card for diving.

[aahatimy @ Jan 19th 2008 10:19AM]

Hookie the term "soccer" actually comes from the UK. I'm from London btw so I am an avid follower of football. It is the short term for association football. I can't really remember the specifics for it but in the late 1800s there were so many different rules of playing "football" that some well knowned teams decided to make a standard of playing football. There were some teams that were against using hands and others for using hands. The ones that were for using hands split off with either a main team located in Rugby or they just went to rugby for the hell of it. Anyway they formed Rugby and the ones that didn't want to use their hands formed Association Football. The group formed a governing body aswell hence the F.A.

If you want a more accurate story go to wikipedia or something.

[Shaun @ Jan 19th 2008 7:32AM]

tottenham hotspurs!!!!!! fight fight fight!!!

[Liam @ Jan 19th 2008 8:44AM]

You'll have to learn how to defend first. Me? I just like watching Berbatov.

[supaneko @ Jan 19th 2008 8:30AM]

Nice.

[aahatimy @ Jan 19th 2008 2:57PM]

I personally believe WiFi would be better but since not many people carry a WiFi enabled phone they should give out both signals.

[Leo M. @ Jan 19th 2008 4:24PM]

I find that people here in Europe are pretty obsessed with bluetooth (as am I) so I don't see a reason to have wi-fi. Bluetooth is far simpler.
I guess anything could work though.

[Maff @ Jan 19th 2008 3:11PM]

E71, the internet's a global community, there's more people outside the US than in it, I'm sure Engadget don't want to lose all those people outside the US from viewing their pages. At least the author of this story recognises there's other places outside the US unlike most Americans

[Maff @ Jan 19th 2008 3:11PM]

E71, people from the US are descendents of Brits & Europeans, bet that makes you feel great, but you're obviously more inbred than the others

[aahatimy @ Jan 19th 2008 4:02PM]

And Africans?

[Brumbo @ Jan 19th 2008 5:35PM]

What a shame the blue shites get it first

VILLAAAAAAAAAAAA