Facebook Announces Own Game Hub For Live Sports Matches
World most populous social media platform, Facebook, on Thursday announced a new feature to enable users to follow games and commentary around them.
The ‘Facebook’s Sport Stadium’ is a new destination inside the social network that includes play-by-play coverage of sports matches, alongside comments from a user’s Facebook friends, analysts and experts, alongside other game and play information.
The point of all this is to make Facebook more appealing to people watching the game on TV.
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“Sports is a global interest that connects people around the world. This product makes connecting over sports more fun and engaging, and we will continue listening to feedback to make it even better,” Facebook said in a blogpost.
Though similar to ESPN’s or CBS’s mobile app, the Stadium feature relies almost entirely on Facebook content. One tab has things your Facebook friends are saying about the game; a separate tab is for things that “experts” (verified Facebook users) are saying.
The feature is initially live in the U.S., where it is covering American football games and only available for users of the Facebook for iOS app. But, the social network said it “will support other sports around the world like basketball, soccer, and more soon” and expand the feature to other platforms “in the coming weeks.”
Those who can access it will need to search for a game to find Facebook Sports Stadium, but the social networking giant is planning to make the feature more visible and easily accessible in the future.
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Facebook said it already has a ton of people talking about live TV, especially sports. During the 2014 World Cup, for example, over 350 million people talked about the games during the month-long tournament.
