One example is the Digital Stadium software created by Japanese developer Craftmax. Aimed at Japan's many baseball fans, Digital Stadium contains a database of 30,000 common baseball plays that are downloaded to a subscriber's mobile phone. During Japanese professional baseball games, the software sends the code for specific plays to the handset, where replica animations are broadcast in real time. Avatars representing players are correctly uniformed, information on the speed and trajectory of a pitch is provided, and sound effects even give voice to the crowd.
Digital Stadium-type software would work with other sports where only one or two players are moving at any given time, such as cricket. However, sports such as football and hockey, where several players move simultaneously, are more challenging for application developers. German company Cairos Technologies has responded with a solution that uses small tracking transmitters on, for instance, a soccer ball and the shin pads of players. While this system has not gone mobile yet, application developers may be encouraged if Cairos succeeds in its attempts to convince soccer's governing body FIFA to use the technology during the 2006 World Cup.
Until then, soccer fans will have to be satisfied with the likes of the match-highlight video clips available from operator 3. Fans in the UK have been downloading these, and score updates, by the thousands since they became available. In Italy, 3 has also been offering soccer fans its own live mobile-TV service, 93° Minute, which provides videos of goals as well as other match action, commentary and interviews. The six to 10 minute program can be accessed from the operator's phones every Sunday at 5.45pm, before any traditional broadcast-TV sports show comes on air.
There are also mobile offerings for sports fans who prefer races to matches. US operator Nextel, for instance, offers a voice service called FanScan, which lets NASCAR enthusiasts listen to in-car conversations between drivers, crew chiefs and spotters. As NASCAR racing is one of the most popular sports in the US, annual revenue from the service is estimated to be more than USD 1.5 million. It also encourages customer loyalty, with a study by Knowledge Networks in late 2004 indicating that in a single year NASCAR fans between the ages of 18 and 49 were five times as likely to have switched to or started to subscribe with Nextel.
For those who choose to bet on the success of their favorite stars, there are mobile offerings such as Swedish horse-racing betting service Snoken. Available to pre-paid and post-paid subscribers with any operator in Sweden, the service provides users with betting tips by means of an ordinary voice call and a single SMS. Snoken's average revenue per user is about USD 28 for regular subscribers.
Read more about Craftmax's Digital Stadium, Cairos Technologies and Nextel's FanScan.
