Apple Sports
A new dedicated Sports app from Apple has landed.
On Wednesday, out of left field (baseball reference), Apple introduced a new iOS application: Apple Sports. Available initially in the USA, UK, and Canada, the app includes real-time scores, play-by-play, and boxscore information for nearly a dozen leagues, including NBA, NHL, and several Football leagues, including MLS, Bundesliga, La Liga, and more. The press release also states that in the near future, it will include scores from leagues, including the MLB, NFL, NCAAF, NWSL, and WNBA, and hopefully, more to come.
I love the app idea. It's a fast, simple, clean, ad-free, and uncluttered way to access sports scores and basic game analytics for the games I care about. For a short while, Apple has had an anemic sports-type section inside the News app that showed game scores, so I'm excited to see this next push toward a more comprehensive & dedicated sports app.
In saying all that, the app is far from perfect. While claiming to be simple, the app comes across as feeling half-baked - perhaps expedited to coincide with the 2024 MLS season opening on February 21, 2024. From just a few moments inside the app, I noticed it lacked the following:
No Live activities or notifications
iOS only (no Apple Watch companion app)
No retroactive/long-range league calendar
Basic analytics (goals, who assisted) are challenging to find.
There is no ability to view Wildcard Standings (only Conference Standings for leagues like the NHL).
No links to news regarding the team (integration to News+)
There needs to be more information on where to view the game besides AppleTV.
There are more dedicated and information-rich Sports apps, but some omissions make the Apple Sports app feel needlessly bare-bones. I hope Apple keeps iterating on the application in the coming months to make this a go-to source for sports enthusiasts. Parker Ortolani created a stunning Sports mockup in 2022 that’s definitely worth checking out.
But the most egregious omission of the new Apple Sports application is the lack of turf. When Apple debuted GameCenter, the icon featured a vibrant quadrant design featuring a wooden chessboard, astroturf, and a corkboard tile. The Apple Sports app, in its present form, features a nondescript sportfield on a bland green gradient. Bleh! So, while Apple takes care of the omissions listed above, I took it upon myself to create a turf-laden Sports icon for the time being. You can download the icon below and use the video tutorial my friend Stephen Robles created to learn how to apply this icon via shortcuts. Enjoy.
