ESPN is a mainstay for me in terms of my TV watching habits. I regularly tune into (or record) SportsCenter, PTI, the NFL Live and Baseball live shows, live events, and some of the ‘Classic ‘ type material as well.
Seeing any ESPN app hit the App Store is interesting to me, and ESPN ScoreCenter in particular seemed right up my alley “ as it offers to help me keep track of over 500 sports from around the world, and I follow a large number of US and international sports.
I ‘ve been using the app quite a bit and have found it mostly disappointing so far. Hit the jump for some of the reasons why, as well as my overall impressions of it
What Does It Do?
ESPN ScoreCenter offers to help you keep track of just about every sport you could possibly think of “ with scores from ‘over 500 sports leagues around the world ‘ and ‘the most reliable scores and game details like plays, key stats, leaderboards, boxscores, and scoring summaries ‘.
There are other apps that offer similar sorts of information “ Sports Tap is one I ‘ve used and liked for a long time “ but none that I can think of that promise the breadth of coverage that this app offers.
What Does It Do Well?
It mostly does what it says on the box. If you only follow major US sports, you do get all the latest results, stats, boxscores, and so on.
It includes a thin strip at the bottom of all screens that provides a ‘live ticker ‘ style feature “ with scrolling text showing some of the latest major stories from around the world of sport. You can click on these and jump straight to the ESPN Mobile Web rendering of the story.
There are tons of stats available “ boxscores and breakdowns galore “ individual stats, team stats, and so on.
The scope of coverage available is huge. You ‘d be hard-pressed to find a (even close to major) sport that ‘s not covered.
What ‘s Not So Good?
A lot of things. I could probably do a SportsCenter Top 10 Plays rundown.
It ‘s messy looking and feeling “ with ads on every page and an interface that does not feel at all clean or easy to navigate in.
There are no graphics anywhere in the app except in the ads. And no video or audio clips. So if you like you scores and stats straight-up with no frills, this may be a big bonus “ but otherwise, you ‘ll just be left wanting more.
Even content-wise, it ‘s a poor effort in my view, especially if you follow any non-US sports. Just as a quick example, here is the main page I see today, having selected Formula 1 as one of my sports to follow:
Yeah “ that ‘s NASCAR news, not Formula 1 at all. A mixup of course, but just a bad indicator.
And here is the main page for the English Premier League today:
No updates in nearly a month. Fair enough the season ended back in May, but there are tons of transfer market dealings and rumors to cover “ no lack of Premier League news just because it ‘s the off-season.
Even for a major US sport I follow, NCAA Football, the same weakness is shown “ there ‘s no news since the National Title game back in January. Again, fair enough there are no new scores to report “ but I ‘d love to see some off-season recruiting news, early analysis for next season and early Top 25 picks, and similar sort of content to fill the gap.
Overall
Maybe my expectations were just too high, but this app has been a big disappointment to me. Looks-wise and interface-wise, I ‘d rate Sports Tap above it (though it does not match this one ‘s broad coverage), and something like MLB At Bat light years above it.
Compared to MLB At Bat, this app is just plain boring. I expected a lot more from one of the world leaders in sports broadcasting. In fact, I think what I expected was something much more like SportsCenter on the iPhone, rather than just a score center.
To be fair, the app does not promise to be SportsCenter on the iPhone “ and it does do what it says it will do in terms of delivering latest scores to us. I guess it has just helped me realize that I don ‘t really want a plain scores app, I want SportsCenter for the iPhone “ with some graphics, and audio and video, and Top 10 plays, and the whole experience.
Maybe ESPN ScoreCenter will add some of those things in future updates, or maybe that ‘s just never going to be what this app is about “ but surely, in this app or another with a different purpose, there should be something from ESPN that can compare favorably with MLB At Bat.
ESPN ScoreCenter is in the App Store now, and it ‘s free.
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TAGS: iPhone sports apps
