By Jason Snell
February 21, 2024 6:00 AM PT
Apple Sports: A free iPhone app to get you the score, fast
If you know one thing about Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services, it’s probably this: Eddy Cue loves sports. He’s frequently spotted courtside at Golden State Warriors games, and when I talked to him last week he was fresh off a plane and still buzzing about how the Super Bowl ended the night before in Las Vegas.
If you love sports like Eddy Cue, you also probably find yourself trying to check scores like Eddy Cue, whether you’re working late or out to dinner or even (as I frequently find on weekend mornings when Arsenal is playing) walking the dog. The options to check scores on the iPhone aren’t great—I find myself using Google a lot of the time, though lately I’ve also been relying on Live Activities pushed from the Apple TV app.
It turns out that those scores, fed from Apple to the TV app and the Apple TV and a few select other places, are from a data source that Eddy Cue also cares about a lot. He’s been pushing it to be as close to real time as is technologically possible, right down to watching his phone and comparing it to the scoreboard at a Warriors game. And now that data source is driving Apple’s latest app, a free iPhone app called Apple Sports, which is debuting today.
“I just want to get the damn score of the game,” Cue says. “And it’s really hard to do, because it seems like it’s nobody’s core [feature].” In a sports data world increasingly driven by fantasy and betting, Apple’s not trying to build an adjunct to some other app business model. (There are some betting lines displayed in the app, but there’s also a setting down in the Settings app to turn them off if you don’t want to see them.)
“We said, ‘We’re going to make the best scores app that you could possibly make,'” Cue said.
You can select the teams and leagues that you follow—it’s the same following list you might have already made in the News or TV apps—and the main view of the Apple Sports app can be toggled from My Leagues to My Teams, depending on what scores you want to see. When games are live, they’re updated as close to realtime as possible, right down to the ticking clock. You can also back up to the previous day to see how your team did the night before, or tap Upcoming to see what’s happening later on in the week.
Tapping on a game will bring up a detailed game card, with more detail including stats and boxscores as well as play-by-play. (I’ve noticed this same data source in those Live Activities, which greet me on an early weekend morning with details about every shot Arsenal has missed.)
Each sport gets its own custom presentation, so while the app is launching with current in-season sports such as basketball (NBA and men’s and women’s NCAA), soccer (MLS, of course, but also Bundesliga, La Liga, Liga MX, Ligue 1, Premier League, and Serie A — but not the Champions League?!), and hockey (NHL), it’ll also support baseball (MLB), and other soccer (NWSL) and basketball (WNBA) leagues when their seasons begin. Fans of college basketball can also expect an update with a special tournament presentation for when March Madness hits.
NFL and college football will also be supported before their seasons start, so if you’re freaking out because you can’t add your favorite football team, relax—it’s a long way until training camp.
Apple Sports is also integrated with apps that offer live video, so you can jump over to the TV app or other connected apps and start watching the game live. The app is available today (February 21) in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom and requires iOS 17.2 or later.
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