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Facebook Messenger has a hidden basketball game
March Madness is upon us, bringing dunks and layups galore as 68 college teams vie for the national championship. It's easy to get swept up in the hype, but if you're anything like me a trip to the court only ends in disappointment, rather than any spectacular recreation of a trick shot or buzzer beater. Instead, we recommend checking out Messenger Madness, a hidden game built into Facebook's chat app. Just send a basketball emoji to some friends and you can face off in a swipe-based shooting contest.
College athletes in EA lawsuit will receive an average of $1,600
Back in July, a judge approved a $60 million settlement between Electronic Arts and a number of college athletes over the use of their likeness in games. Athletes with a valid claim, all 24,819 of them, will finally get their share of the settlement. The average player will receive $1,600 after lawyers for the class action take their 30-percent cut. Of course, the lead plaintiffs (Ed O'Bannon, Ryan Hart and Sam Keller) will get the most at approximately $15,000 each. A group of 21 players will receive $5,000 each for their role as representatives in the class action.
NCAA March Madness Live streams games to even more devices
Oh, March Madness. The time of year when productivity takes a nose dive as sports fans follow along to see who will win the office pool. NCAA March Madness Live is the home for all your streaming needs when it comes to the tournament, and this year the live basketball action is available on more devices than ever before. In addition to the web portal and mobile apps, March Madness Live also streams to Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Roku gadgets. What's more, the mobile apps also feature Google Cast and AirPlay, should you need to beam the footage to a nearby TV or in-game audio to a wireless speaker.
No, EA isn't reviving 'NCAA Football'
EA Sports revived the official NCAA Football Facebook page this morning after one-and-a-half years of silence, posting a four-second video of a heart monitor and the caption, "Our heart still beats for the big game... #NationalChampionship." Fans wondered if this signaled the return of EA Sports NCAA Football -- the series ended in 2013 following a class-action lawsuit over EA's use of student likenesses in its games. Despite the surprise Facebook post, the NCAA series is not making a comeback, EA tells Engadget.
The Vert 2 activity tracker knows if you're making the effort
The original Vert was all about the jumping, and it was quite accurate measuring said jumping. The wearable is getting a 2016 refresh, with an expanded repertoire of metrics that not only includes the frequency of intense movements (sensors are accelerometers and gyros), but also the intensity of the movements themselves. It'll even distinguish between high and low intensity, giving you a total for both at the end. Surges of activity per minute is yet another metric on hand, and one that may prove useful as the company continues to get its wearable tech employed by the NCAA and ESPN for in-game analytics.
EA removes 13 female players from 'FIFA 16' after NCAA concerns
EA is no stranger to issues with the NCAA, and this time FIFA 16 women's rosters are the culprit. The gaming studio announced today that following an NCAA notice, it would remove 13 players from the game that are currently on or "likely" to be on college rosters. "We believe this decision denies these 13 athletes the opportunity to represent their countries in the game, but we have removed them from FIFA 16 to ensure there is no risk to their eligibility," EA said in a blog post. While EA didn't compensate those players for appearing in the game, the NCAA says that including them would still jeopardize their ability to take the pitch for their respective schools. The group of players that won't make the game includes six players from Canada, six from Mexico and one from Spain (detailed info here). All 12 women's national teams are now playable with EA Access Play it First Trials.
Recommended Reading: Watching football without cable
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. Unbundling: Beginner's Guide to Football without Cable by Joe Ovies WRAL Sports Fan As football season approaches, live sports remains a stumbling block for fans who are eager to cut the cord. If you're looking to examine your options ahead of kickoff, this piece takes a look at the current state of streaming in regards to both college and NFL action.
2K is reportedly bringing college basketball back to its games
For the first time in years, college basketball teams may soon be playable in a video game. ESPN's Darren Rovell reports that 2K Sports has licensing deals in place with ten schools and plans to include them in an upcoming title. That list of teams includes Arizona, Kansas, Louisville, Michigan, UCLA and more according to SB Nation -- some of college basketball's big-name programs. If you'll recall, EA cancelled the 2014 installment of its college football title after a lawsuit over the use of player likenesses and the NCAA pulling its licensing deal. When it comes to college hoops, though, there hasn't been a game in several years, so this would be a welcome release for folks who've been waiting.
Sling TV is sorry for messing up your Final Four basketball stream
Dish's Sling TV streaming service got its first big stress test during the NCAA's Final Four games this weekend... and, well, it didn't cope gracefully. The company has apologized after Sling TV buckled during the college basketball semifinals, producing errors and otherwise keeping many people from following the action. Reportedly, a combo of "extreme sign-ups and streaming" triggered the meltdown -- Dish wasn't prepared for the flood of new customers, and had to juggle the load across its networking partners to get things back to normal. That's an auspicious sign for Sling TV's future (there's clearly a lot of demand for live sports online), but let's hope that it's better prepared for the next big wave of cord cutters. [Image credit: Chris Steppig/Getty Images]
The Associated Press is automating college sports news, too
In an effort to bring the masses more sports news, the Associated Press plans to use automated tech for stories it wouldn't normally cover. The AP is working with the NCAA this spring to produce game reports across Division I baseball, Division I women's basketball and both Division II and III football. In the months to come, coverage will extend to Division II and III men's basketball -- probably just in time for next season. While the NCAA will provide the game stats, stories will leverage the tech that the AP already uses to automate thousands of earnings reports each quarter. "This will mean thousands of more stories on the AP wire, which will remain unmatched in the industry," said Barry Bedlan, the AP's deputy director of sports products. "Every college sports town will have some level of coverage." Local news outlets will certainly tap into the new feed, so hopefully small town beat reporters won't have to find a new niche. [Image credit: Ethan Hyman/Raleigh News & Observer/MCT via Getty Images]
Women's basketball recruiter sanctioned for sharing a Netflix account
When the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) involves itself with regulating over a thousand sports teams, organizations and athletes, it's normally a big deal - especially when deal-makers are looking to offer all kinds of incentives for the best young players. Then there's Southeast Missouri State, whose former assistant coach has violated rules by talking to recruits in quiet season, in addition to offering water bottles and shirts for a local baseball camp. The final disgraceful act? (Assistant coach Ben Coomes left the school this summer after these violations happened.) He apparently gave recruits the login details to his Netflix account, which meant they could use the streaming service without paying, the monsters. As Daily Dot notes, compared to the allegations of fraud agains the University of North Carolina, accused of offering faux classes for more than 18 years, the occasional Air Bud revisit on someone else's account doesn't quite seem so bad.
Find out what channel the game is on with Bleacher Buddy
We are entering one of the busiest times of the year for sporting events. Baseball playoffs are starting while both college football and the NFL are in full swing as is soccer world-wide. Plus the NBA and NHL start their seasons in the next couple of weeks. In addition to tracking all these games, you have to go through hundreds of cable and satellite channels. So where is my game being televised? Now Bleacher Buddy offers a one-stop app that will not only provide the channel and time but will also alert you in advance if you choose. This is a free universal app that needs iOS 4.3 or later. First with Bleacher Buddy you enter your zip code. This brings up a list of the local cable and satellite providers in your area. Choose the one you use and you are all set. Now once you select the sport or game you want to watch, the app gives you the local channel and start time. It is as simple as that. Just about every sport is available: MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA, MLS, EPL, WNBA, NCAA football and basketball, golf and even lacrosse. Once you select the sport you get a list of the specific leagues available like in the photo below, basketball is broken out to include the NBA, College Basketball, and the WNBA and Women's College Basketball. Users select the one they want and they receive a list of the games being played that day. They can then go forward to see games in the upcoming days. After you select the game you want, Bleacher Buddy brings up a game page that includes the local TV channels where the game can be viewed, the local start time, and other info such as odds, a chat area, and a place for you to make a prediction on the outcome of the game. Another feature included in Bleacher Buddy is an area where users can set up favorite teams so they can receive alerts on the start of the game and score updates. Each sport also has a "locker room" area so users can chat amongst themselves and "talk" sports and about the game itself. This app works for all zip codes so if you are away from home working or for some other reason, just enter the local zip code and get the local channel listings for your game. Bleacher Buddy takes all the guessing and searching out of finding the game you want to watch on TV.
All things college athletics with the official NCAA app
Mention the NCAA around most sports fans and you can expect a litany of complaints about the organization that oversees college athletics. However the official NCAA app should satisfy most followers of collegiate sports. The free universal app runs on iOS 7.0 or later and covers a lot more than just football and basketball. Similar to other apps that cover college sports you can get the latest news updates on major sports such as football, basketball, both men and women's, and baseball. The NCAA app goes further with coverage of all the NCAA sports: Wrestling Volleyball Field Hockey Ice Hockey Cross Country Track & Field Lacrosse And about a dozen more. If you have someone involved in any of the athletic competitions taking place at NCAA member schools you can follow them with the NCAA app. Users can choose up to three favorite schools and the app pulls news, video, scores, and more from each of those schools so you can find it in a single location. No browsing through hundreds of stories or score to get your favorite's. And you can set up alerts for your favorite teams for news and or score updates. The hardest part of picking your favorite is finding the school on the huge list of colleges and universities included in the app. Every school that is an NCAA member is listed in alphabetical order from big universities like Notre Dame, Southern Cal, and Alabama to small schools like Agnes Scott College, College of St. Elizabeth, and Judson College and all the colleges and universities in between. Regardless of what your favorite college sport is, you will find stories and other features included in the app. Plus users can find out the latest rankings of teams in all the sports. So if you want to see how your college cross country team is doing, select cross country from the sports list then choose rankings and you will find Northern Arizona at the top of the Division 1 list followed by Oklahoma State and Colorado. The app provides numerous videos for users to watch both in the team pages and in the general news coverage. I checked several and all were preceded by a fifteen second commercial announcement and unfortunately it appears the same commercial appears before each video so be prepared to sit through the same ad time after time if you watch a lot of videos. Despite this failing, the official NCAA app is still worth having for those fans of some of the less popular and highly covered sports that take place on college campuses around the country.
Judge: NCAA's likeness compensation rules violate antitrust laws
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled yesterday that NCAA rules prohibiting student athletes from receiving compensation for the use of their images, names and likenesses violates antitrust laws, CBS Sports reported. NCAA rules do not allow colleges to pay athletes when their images are used in a video game series such as EA Sports' NCAA Football games, and Wilken said those rules "unreasonably restrain trade." Wilken is the same judge that ordered settlement talks between the NCAA and Ed O'Bannon in February, after EA agreed to settle its own likeness lawsuits with student athletes to the tune of $40 million in September 2013. EA canceled its next NCAA Football game at that time and began "evaluating [its] plan for the future of the franchise." The publisher later reported an additional $8 million in expected expenses as a result of the lawsuit settlement, which amounted to roughly $1,000 per athlete, per appearance in the games.
Judge rules against NCAA in case over using athletes' likenesses
After a group of former college athletes including Ed O'Bannon, Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson sued the NCAA and EA over the uncompensated use of their likeness in videogames and other media, EA and the NCAA reached a settlement last year for about $60 million. Today, ESPN reports that a judge has ruled on the case in favor of the athletes, saying the "NCAA rules unreasonably restrain trade." In a 99-page ruling (embedded after the break), US District Judge Claudia Wilken decided the NCAA can't stop football and basketball student-athletes from being paid for the use of their name and likeness, but did allow the NCAA to set a cap on the amount the amount of compensation they can receive while in school, as long as it's now below the cost of attendance. The NCAA can also cap the amount of money schools or conferences could deposit in a licensing trust that's payable when athletes leave school or their eligibility runs out, but it would have to be at least $5,000 per year at big schools. In a statement, the NCAA said "We disagree with the Court's decision that NCAA rules violate antitrust laws" and promised further comment later.
Bitcoin gets its first big sports sponsorship
Bitcoin is about to hit the big leagues in a very literal sense -- it just got its first major sports sponsorship. BitPay has struck a deal with ESPN Events that will rename one post-season NCAA football game as the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl through 2016. When the Bowl next kicks off, on December 26th, you'll see the digital currency's signature "B" plastered all over TV broadcasts, the field and the inevitable glut of merchandise. It's hard to say if the marketing blitz will translate to greater adoption, but it's well-timed. When Dish, Expedia and Overstock.com have all started taking Bitcoin, anyone who's swayed by the promotion will have at least a few places to spend their virtual cash.
EA may pay almost $1,000 per college athlete for sports game settlement
Student athletes whose likenesses were used in EA's NCAA football and basketball games will receive up to $951 for each year they were featured in the games, according to a proposed settlement being put forth for approval by a judge. While EA proposed a $40 million settlement in September 2013 for its ongoing litigation with student athletes over its college sports series stemming back to May 2009, it hasn't been clear how that money would divide among the parties in the lawsuit until now. More than 100,000 current and former college athletes will have the potential to claim part of the settlement, according to CBS Sports. Of those athletes, roughly 7,000 of them are current players, based on estimates from Rob Carey, an attorney for former Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller. EA tacked on an extra $8 million in expenses related to the settlement in its fiscal 2014 financial results in May. Its proposed settlement followed the cancellation of its 2014 college football game, which would have been without the NCAA's logos and marks after the two parted ways in July 2013. [Image: EA Sports]
College football settlement costs EA another $8 million
When EA settled its ongoing litigation with student athletes in September 2013 related to its NCAA Basketball and Football video games, its expenses amounted to $40 million. Now, it is tacking on $8 million more in expected expenses for fiscal 2014, bringing the total to $48 million, according to the company's year-end financial results. EA reported $40 million in settlement expenses as recently as the last fiscal quarter, ending in December. The publisher canceled its 2014 college football video game in September, following the NCAA's decision to not renew its licensing agreement with EA in July. The settlement by EA and the Collegiate Licensing Company led to another lawsuit in November, this one by the NCAA against EA. EA planned to continue working with the CLC to develop college sports games without the use of the NCAA's marks and logos, a non-exclusive agreement that was slated to last three years. The college athlete likeness lawsuits stem back to May 2009. [Image: EA]
March Madness 2014 was live streamed nearly 70 million times
Hey, look, we all know the Super Bowl is a pretty big deal. But March Madness isn't that far off, both in terms of viewership and the great dose of excitement it injects into fans. And there are numbers to prove it too. According to Turner Sports, an NCAA partner, March Madness Live 2014 shattered all previous online viewing records for the tournament, netting a total of 69.7 million live streams. That statistic takes into account the different platforms in which the service was available this year, which included a website as well as apps on iOS, Android, Kindle Fire and Windows devices. In retrospect, Turner reports that March Madness Live 2014 streams grew by 42 percent compared to last year, while TV Everywhere (aka sites and apps from pay-TV providers) also saw an increase in usage during the basketball tournament, with an 85 percent growth from March Madness 2013. All in all, the NCAA can be pleased by the response from people in 2014, who clearly took advantage of the streaming options it was able to provide in association with CBS, Turner Sports and cable/satellite companies. [Image credit: Charlie Neibergall/AP]
Wilson introduces what could be the basketball of the future
Ahead of the NCAA men's Final Four, which takes place today and you can watch via March Madness Live 2014 or on TV, sporting goods maker Wilson has revealed its new, smart basketball. Due to launch this winter (around the holiday season, we're told), Wilson's attempting to revolutionize the game of hoops by placing performance-tracking sensors inside of a basketball. The technology, developed by Wilson in partnership with Finnish artificial intelligence firm SportIQ, will allow players to pair the ball with an app and use it to easily track performance data. This means you can see how well you're shooting; which spots on the court you're most efficient from; the amount of time it takes you to let a shot go; and when shots have been made or missed. As it stands, Wilson says its newly minted intelligent ball is a consumer-focused initiative, but that it is "certainly extendable" to future basketball competitions. Wilson's VP of Digital, Tom Gruger, told Engadget that development for the ball started more than two years ago, and the goal from the beginning was to "provide actionable data to players so their training could be more focused on 'actual' rather than 'perceived' performance." Gruger also said the company is working to bring a similar type of tech to products from other sports: "Wilson is pursuing solutions in all of its primary sport categories. We're excited by the roadmap ahead and feel that we can change the way that sport is approached."
