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Rip Curl and Surfline team up to serve videos of your surf sessions
It's easy to track your surfing, but recording video for posterity is much harder unless you have a friend who's willing to film from the beach. Surfline and Rip Curl want to make it as simple as launching an app. They've partnered on a Surfline Sessions feature that sends video of your ride to your iPhone (sorry, Android users). If you're wearing one of Rip Curl's Search GPS 2 watches, pair it with the Surfline Sessions app and subscribe to Surfline Premium, you'll receive videos of each wave ride conducted in front of one of Surfline's 600-plus worldwide cameras. You can study your surfing technique (or just brag) before you've even loaded your board in the car.
'FIFA 20' will add South America's largest club tournament in March
Fùtbol fans are about to get a welcome addition to FIFA 20. EA is adding CONMEBOL Libertadores, South America's largest club tournament, as part of a free update to the game in March 2020. The expansion pits some of the continent's hotter teams against each other, such as Boca Juniors and Flamengo. It'll also include other CONMEBOL's other tournaments, Sudamericana and Recopa.
Air racing tournament unveils an all-electric sports aircraft
The electric aircraft seen to date have focused more on raw utility than thrill-seeking, but that's about to change very shortly. Air Race E, an air racing tournament backed by Airbus, has formally unveiled what it bills as the first electric race aircraft. The Condor Aviation-made White Lightning looks like a typical competitive single-seater, but packs an electric motor that can propel it to 300MPH while handling tight turns on a 3.1-mile circuit at just 33 feet off the ground.
UEFA Champions League is coming to CBS All Access in 2021
The giants of European soccer are headed to CBS All Access starting in 2021, when CBS snatches the rights to one of the sport's biggest competitions away from Turner. While CBS will broadcast some UEFA Champions League games on its eponymous network (perhaps including the final), all of them will be available to stream in the US on All Access, which starts at $6/month.
NBA unveils a more affordable online subscription with over 100 live games
If you want to watch NBA games at home, previously you've had to get a pricey cable package or sign up to the similarly costly League Pass streaming service. Now, the NBA is providing fans with a new way to watch, offering its NBA TV channel as a stand-alone affordable subscription with options to watch live or to catch on-demand content.
Save $80 on Sony’s sporty WF-SP700N true wireless earbuds
At their original list price of $180, Sony's sporty WF-SP700N true wireless, noise cancelling earbuds were already a solid deal. Today, Amazon has an even better offer. The WF-SP700N in black are on sale for $99.95 -- that's an $80 savings.
EA's 'NBA Live' franchise is out for the season, again
One again, EA's NBA franchise is skipping a season, as the company announced during today's earnings call that NBA Live 20 has been cancelled. Three months ago the project was simply delayed with plans for a "different approach," but that won't be enough. In a prepared statement read at the beginning of the call, CEO Andrew Wilson said the company was working on something timed for release around All-Star Weekend, "an experience designed around new ways for players to engage, connect and create through basketball."
Sony’s X900F 55-inch 4K TV is $500 off on Amazon
Sony's 55-inch 4K Ultra HD X900F is listed at a historically low price on Amazon. The well-regarded, Alexa-compatible LED TV launched at $1,500, but its price has been steadily sliding down. For most of the year, we've seen it priced at $1,200. Today's price ($998) is the lowest yet.
DAZN will provide boxing news and highlights on Snapchat
DAZN's boxing coverage is now headed to an unusual place: Snapchat. The sports service is teaming up with Snapchat to launch DAZN Fight Week and DAZN Fight Night shows on Discover that deliver boxing news and highlights in a cut-down form. Fight Week is available starting today (October 28th) and will cover the run-ups to big matches, starting with Canelo Alvarez's bout with Sergey Kovalev on November 2nd. Fight Night will arrive on November 2nd and deliver rapid-fire highlights from matches as well as weekly recaps.
Google wants to be your guide to Champions League soccer
The UEFA Champions League has already reached the group stages, but Google wants you to know it has your back for the rest of the season. Search for "Champions League" on Google and you now get a whole suite of tools to follow the competition, including the usual scores, schedules and standings as well as video recaps and detailed news like club lineups and trade rumors. A new wheel makes it easy to see who's facing who.
Nike will drop exclusive, limited-edition sneakers inside ‘NBA 2K20’
Those of you who are into NBA 2K know that, for years, you've been able to buy sneakers from different brands for your virtual player in the game. But now, thanks to a new partnership between Nike and software publisher 2K Sports, you'll have a chance to get real sneakers for yourself as you're playing NBA 2K20. And they won't just be any kind of shoes -- they're going to be limited edition and exclusive to the popular basketball title. Nike says it will drop 10 "Gamer Exclusives" through NBA 2K20, starting on October 29th, when players will have the opportunity to purchase them by completing in-game challenges.
Nike opens NBA season with YouTube-themed Kevin Durant sneakers
As the 2019-2020 NBA season gets ready to tip off on October 22nd, Nike has unveiled new colors of its signature basketball sneakers for opening week. One of those is the KD12 "YouTube," the latest edition of Kevin Durant's performance shoe that's themed after Google's video service. And while Durant won't make his debut for the Brooklyn Nets until sometime next year, due to a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered last season, Nike wanted to create a design to show his love for YouTube as a way to connect with fans. Durant joined YouTube in 2017, and has since used his channel to post videos about him traveling and meeting people around the world.
ESPN will create a daily sports show for Quibi's streaming service
Quibi's upcoming mobile video service is so far focused on short-form shows from celebrities like Chrissy Teigen, Idris Elba and Steven Spielberg, but sports are now set to be part of the package as well. ESPN has agreed to create a daily sports show for Quibi that will recap the "biggest moments" and deliver breaking news. While the finer points of the show haven't been mentioned, it will be the exclusive US multi-sport provider for Quibi's curated news programming and should be ready when Quibi itself debuts in April 2020.
Adidas made a Snapchat game to drop limited, 8-bit-themed baseball cleats
Adidas is teaming up with Snapchat on a unique way to launch a product. The sportswear giant has created an 8-bit game you can play in Snapchat, called Baseball's Next Level, where you'll have the chance to buy its new 8-bit-themed baseball cleats. Produced in partnership with developer AvatarLabs, Baseball's Next Level is a home run derby, old-school style title that will let you play as some of Adidas' Major League Baseball athletes. That includes Aaron Judge (Yankees), Carlos Correa (Astros), Alex Bregman (Astros), Justin Turner (Dodgers) and Kiké Hernandez (Dodgers), all of whom have their own Adizero or Icon V cleats in the Adidas 8-bit collection, which you can buy directly from the game.
'FIFA' esports league reveals changes to 2020 season format
After two eWorld Cups, FIFA and Electronic Arts are tweaking the competition for a new season. To start, EA says it's simplifying online qualification with a new "Friendly Competition" mode. Taking a page from professional soccer, this mode will see teams and individuals play two games to determine who goes through, with aggregate goals determining the winner in case of a split series.
ESPN+ was already an insane deal, now it has the Bundesliga
The dust had just settled from Bayern Munich's 7-2 thumping of Tottenham when ESPN made arguably its biggest ESPN+ announcement to date. Starting with the 2020 season, ESPN+ will be the home of the Bundesliga in the US and fans will be able to stream every regular season match, plus the DFL Supercup, relegation playoffs and more. The standalone streaming service already offered a lot of soccer, now it's quickly becoming the best option for following the sport. And it still, miraculously, only costs $5 a month.
Fox Sports will stream ALCS games in 4K HDR for the first time
Want to watch the American League Championship Series in the best possible quality? You'll need to stream it. Fox Sports is keeping up its recent habits by streaming 2019 ALCS games in 4K HDR through its namesake app and Fox Now. The same caveats still apply. You'll need a 4K-capable Roku device or an Apple TV 4K to watch. And this is technically an upconverted 1080p signal rather than true 4K -- you might not see every dirt smudge on player's uniforms. This could nonetheless be the best view you get, and you can tune into the non-HDR 4K feed using FuboTV and conventional broadcasters.
YouTube is 'really happy' with viewership for its live MLB games
Now that the regular MLB season is winding down, how has YouTube's exclusive game streaming deal fared? Quite well, relatively speaking. The online video giant reported that its 13 livestreamed games racked up an average of 1.2 million viewers (including pre- and post-shows), with a typical game peaking at 171,000 simultaneous viewers. Its most popular match was a Cardinals-Dodgers showdown on August 7th with a large 320,000 concurrent viewers.
Anker unveils six affordable AirPod alternatives
Today, Anker added six new Bluetooth earbud models to its Soundcore audio lineup. The additions include follow ups to its Liberty Air music-centered wireless earbuds and three new sports-focused options. The "crown jewel" of the new products is the Liberty 2 Pro, which Anker says has a first-of-its-kind coaxial driver tuned by Grammy winning audio engineers.
ESPN will make exclusive shows for Facebook Watch
ESPN will broadcast exclusive shows and segments on Facebook Watch under a new deal. First up are bonus segments from Always Late With Katie Nolan, an ESPN+ sports/comedy show that'll debut on ESPN2 this week, along with The People's MMA Show, a weekly series focused on the lives of mixed martial arts fighters. There'll also be a version of the Countdown to GameDay pre-game show for College GameDay and a video version of Fantasy Focus Live.
