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Fox Sports created a USWNT Snapchat AR lens for the World Cup
The United States women's national soccer team laid down a clear statement of intent to their World Cup rivals after a record-breaking 13-0 win over Thailand in their opening game. Alex Morgan grabbed the headlines by scoring five goals against the Asian side in France, and now the co-captain of the defending champions is taking on another starring role.
Twitter and Fox Sports are making a live show for the Women's World Cup
Following their partnership during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Twitter and Fox Sports are now teaming up on video content for another major FIFA sporting event. For the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, which is being played in France this summer, Twitter and Fox Sports are bringing back their live soccer (er, football) show from last year, though it'll now be called FIFA Women's World Cup Now. The premise is the same as the original program: It'll be live-streamed on Twitter, feature match previews, recaps, highlights, guest appearances and, naturally, the best tweets from users across the site.
Premier League wants video referees starting next season
The wheels are in motion for the Premier League to roll out the video assistant referee (VAR) system starting in 2019-2020. Teams have agreed in principle to the plan, and the league will formally request approval from FIFA and the International Football Association Board.
World Cup tweets were viewed 115 billion times
Twitter had high hopes that the World Cup would be a big hit on its platform. The previous games in 2014 happened before the platform released video features, but this time around, it secured a deal with the event's US rights holder Fox Sports, as well as others across the world, for exclusive content like highlight clips and interviews. As the dust settles following the French team's triumph over underdog Croatia's squad in Sunday's final game, Twitter has released its own numbers to give us an idea how the World Cup went for the platform.
The World Cup showed how VAR will shape soccer’s future
For every football (aka soccer) fan, it doesn't get any bigger than the FIFA World Cup. Every four years since 1930, the tournament has been held in different parts of the globe, and honestly, it hasn't changed much. There was the expansion to include 32 teams in 1998, but the game's rules have rarely been altered -- largely because of FIFA's unwillingness to embrace emerging technologies. But the 2018 edition in Russia, which ended Sunday with France's win over Croatia, was different. For the first time ever, FIFA used the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) at its flagship competition. And the tech, for better or worse (depending on which team you cheered on), certainly made a mark.
'FIFA 18' correctly predicted France's World Cup win
EA Sports has a pretty amazing record when it comes to predicting the outcome of major sporting events. The company used it's FIFA 18 game to correctly opine that Germany would win the 2014 World Cup, and has used the long-running Madden franchise to correctly guess the real winner of the Super Bowl nine out of thirteen times. Now EA wants you to know that it also correctly chose France as the winner of this year's World Cup.
After Math: Stage 4 capitalism
It's been another fun-filled week of plebes like us being crushed under the heel of big business. Want to take a trip into orbit? You're gonna need to mortgage your house and your children's futures. Want to own the last decent MacBook Pro? Tough, Apple now says that the garbage touch panel version is the only one for sale. Trying to watch the World Cup on YouTubeTV? NOPE. NO SOCCER FOR YOU. COME BACK FOUR YEARS!
Even the World Cup couldn't escape the 'Fortnite' fever
Now that England is out of the 2018 World Cup, there's one thing we're really going to miss about its team: The goal celebrations from midfielders Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard. While professional athletes creatively expressing themselves after scoring is nothing new, these guys stood out because their quirky moves were inspired by none other than Fortnite. Best of all, they did it at the world's biggest sporting event. Fortnite's mark on the World Cup in Russia is just the latest example of how inescapable the Epic Games' survival title is.
China busts World Cup gambling ring pulling $1.5 billion in crypto bets
Officials in China have busted a World Cup gambling ring that took in over 10 billion yuan (nearly $1.5 billion) in cryptocurrency bets, reports the South China Morning Post. Six individuals allegedly connected to a dark web-based crime syndicate have been arrested and authorities have seized cryptocurrencies found in their possession worth over 10 million yuan. In a statement, police in the Guangdong province said that gambling platform they ran accepted bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin.
YouTube TV apologizes for World Cup downtime with a free week
In the middle of Wednesday's World Cup semifinal match between England and Croatia, YouTube's live TV service suffered an unfortunately-timed outage (not unlike ones we've seen from Sling or Hulu). Naturally, it enraged YouTube TV subscribers who had picked up the service specifically to catch live broadcasts like that game, and now it's offering an apology in the form of a credit. In an email that went out to customers, YouTube TV promised a free week, which for customers on its standard $40 per month plan should amount to $10 off. It also noted that DVR'd recordings of the full match should be available in the Library -- if you can stand to watch that one again.
'Alexa, is football coming home?'
You've gotta hand it to England's football fans -- what they lack in World Cup wins they more than make up for in boundless optimism. It's been 52 years since the team won the World Cup, but after their unbearably tense win against Colombia earlier this week, football (or "soccer", except not soccer) is now closer to coming home than it has been for more than half a century -- and even Alexa knows it.
Fox set a streaming record during the World Cup on Monday
Fox Sports has done a lot of work to deliver live streaming coverage of the World Cup in Russia, but it seems to be paying off. The network announced that the Brazil-Mexico match was its top authenticated streaming event ever with 1.4 million unique visitors, and that Monday was its best all-time streaming day with 2 million viewers. That trumps its previous all-time high of 1.8 million unique visitors set just a week ago on June 27th.
PSVR’s World Cup ‘executive suite’ is more ludicrous than luxurious
In case you wanted another way to watch this year's World Cup from Russia, PlayStation has you covered. Sony's gaming division has partnered with BBC Sports VR to put you in a virtual executive box replete with a gigantic window overlooking the pitch. More than that, you'll have a choice between three different "seats" on the fly, too: behind each goal and from the midfield line. You just need a PlayStation 4, PSVR helmet and the BBC's free World Cup PSVR app.
A World Cup match was the 'most-watched' Spanish livestream ever
The World Cup started last week, and with all the livestreaming options, it's no surprise that the matches have already attracted an enormous amount of views. But yesterday's match between Argentina and Croatia broke a new record when its Telemundo digital broadcast became the most-watched Spanish-language livestream in history with 4.3 million livestreams, which racked up a total of 68 million minutes viewed.
'Fortnite' marks World Cup with stadium and goal scoring challenges
You didn't think Epic Games would let a sporting event as momentous as the World Cup go by without a Fortnite tie-in, did you? Sure enough, the developer has made a slew of updates to mark the beautiful game's most important tournament. There's now a hard-to-miss stadium map, and your weekly challenges now include scoring goals on fields across the island. And naturally, there's plenty of themed items to buy with your spare V-Bucks.
Video referee technology influences its first World Cup goal
When FIFA greenlit the use of video assistant referees at the 2018 World Cup, there was one overriding question: how long would it take before the technology shaped an important call? Not long at all, apparently. Two days into the group stage, officiators have used VAR to call for a key penalty after Australia's John Risdon appeared to have fouled France's Antoine Griezmann with a sliding tackle, disrupting a charge toward a possible goal. Griezmann promptly scored on the subsequent penalty kick, giving France the lead.
Watch the World Cup 2018 in VR on Oculus Go and Gear VR
The Oculus Go- and Samsung VR-compatible platform Venues was introduced the back in May as an immersive VR experience placing viewers within a simulated stadium for sports games and events. What better way to kick it off than with the World Cup? Select games will be livestreamed for free in Venues courtesy of Fox Sports, starting with Germany and Mexico's game at 8AM PT on June 17th.
Twitter is making it easier to follow your favorite topics and events
Twitter has always been the ideal site for conversations and reactions around live events, be it a sports game, an awards show or serious breaking news. Up until today, you've been able to use the Twitter mobile apps to get notifications from specific accounts you're into, like an NBA team or a media outlet, as well as breaking news. But now, the company wants to take that one step further and make it easier for you to see the latest about events and topics you care about. You'll notice this in the form of push notifications that will be sent to your phone based on your particular interests, including who you follow and what you tweet about.
How to watch the World Cup 2018
For soccer (er, football) fans everywhere, the next four weeks are going to be all about the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. The globe's biggest sporting event, which takes place every four years, is kicking off Thursday, June 14th, when host nation Russia takes on Saudi Arabia at 11AM ET. And yes, we know the USA team won't be there, but football is bigger than just one nation. So even if you won't get to cheer on the Stars and Stripes this year, there's still plenty to look forward to at the World Cup.
YouTube's World Cup coverage includes near-live highlights in Spanish
If you're eager to follow the 2018 World Cup online en español and can't watch live, you might have a viable alternative. Telemundo has teamed up with Google to provide "close to real-time" video highlights in Spanish for American viewers. Search for matches, scores and teams and you'll see goals, halftime highlights and other stand-out moments through YouTube. It should be useful in between games, too, with match previews, news and other useful info.