The sports world has always been at the leading edge of technological progress. Athletes dominate the list of most-followed celebrities across social platforms. Teams and players have used everything from video games to fitness trackers to AI in order to get an edge over their competition. Nothing has shaped the future of TV more than the bidding wars over live events like the Super Bowl or the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. You’ve seen Microsoft’s Surface tablets thrown all over NFL sidelines, VR cameras promising a courtside view of the NBA Finals, and shoes that make marathon runners even faster somehow. From VAR and robotic umpires to hyperrealistic Formula One simulators and league-affiliated esports, the future of sports is as much a story about technology as it is about wins and losses. It’s taking place across sports, across the globe, and at record-breaking speed.
By all reports, Apple and Warner Bros.’ F1 wasn’t cheap to produce, but you can definitely see director Joseph Kosinski putting that budget to work in the film’s new teaser trailer. The movie’s out internationally on June 25th, 2025, June 27th in the US, and will hit Apple TV Plus some time afterwards.
Electric bikepacking: lessons learned over four days and 250 miles
E-bikes open up cycling sports to more people, and not just the cheaters.
The Enhanced Games, a Saturday Night Live skit come to life, is trying to raise before the first competition. I’m very curious to see who invests!
Tech reporter Janko Roettgers shared screenshots of the in-the-works live sports streaming app from Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox in his Lowpass newsletter. Some features spotted by Roettgers include a DVR capability to record live events, multiview for watching multiple streams at once, and a tab dedicated to live programming.
Albania’s Jasir Asani brought out Mario-themed cleats for the team’s match against Croatia today.
Nintendo Switch Sports launched with a handful of games you’d kind of expect, like bowling, badminton, and swordplay, but after a free update dropping later this year, you’ll finally be able to shoot some hoops as well.
Following the introduction of live NBA scores, Threads will have live MLB scores “starting today,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced. You can see MLB scores by searching for a game while it’s happening or within one day of when it ends, according to spokesperson Alec Booker.
The company plans to “continue expanding live scores to cover more sports and leagues,” Mosseri said.
Update, June 13th: Added new details and an image from Meta.
What will we find there? NBC Sports writer Denny Carter might have the best guess, from this 2017 tweet:
Typical QB tweet: love my teammates god is good!
RB tweet: keep grindin
TE tweet: derp
WR tweet: the enemy speaks kindly & holds a knife
Following last year’s Quarterback series, Receiver premieres on Netflix on July 10th.
I’m a trail runner that switched from Garmin to an Apple Watch Ultra. I like to leave my heavy phone at home which meant installing (and paying for) WorkOutDoors and Footpath to fill that massive off-line mapping void. A native watchOS solution should make things much, much easier.
Here, let DC Rainmaker explain the new custom routes feature.
Following a shocking World Cup cricket win by the US over Pakistan, people are learning about players like Super Over hero Netravalkar. Other than being a “zippy left arm quick bowler with an efficient action capable of swinging the ball in both directions,” he’s also an Oracle software engineer.
If you need to become a cricket expert before next Wednesday’s matchup with India, try this explainer.
The FIA’s “nimble” cars will be shorter and lighter, and a new hybrid setup increases battery power from 120kw to 350kw with “manual override” for boosted overtaking. There’s active aero now in the front and back, but DRS is gone.
That’s all great, but I’m still looking through articles and podcasts to find one saying how this adds up to a Lewis Hamilton championship with Ferrari.
It’s live in 20 countries now and will reach 25 by July 1st. Warner Bros. Discovery also has bundle deals in place with providers like Telefonica and Vodafone.
In these European countries, Max will be the only way to stream every 2024 Olympic Games event live, it offers “double the amount of content” versus HBO Max, and House of Dragons season two will premiere on June 17th.
After plenty of teases and licensing news, EA is showing off the official covers for its NIL-enabled College Football 25 game, which is returning after a decade-long break. Even if they don’t have the backup QB from Texas, EA has signed the starter, as its cover features Quinn Ewers alongside Michigan running back Donovan Edwards, and Colorado wide receiver/defensive back Travis Hunter.
CNBC reports a tie-in with Lucra Sports will eventually enable customers to bet against each other on games like Skee-Ball.
But even if you’re a degenerate with money on the line trying to convince a kid to Jontay Porter their next game, why use some app instead of cash? Also, in some places, D&B already has real gambling.
30 years after the tragic death of Brazilion F1 great Ayrton Senna, Netflix released a first look at its upcoming series based on his life.
Post-Drive to Survive and ahead of this weekend’s Miami GP, it’s clear how much F1’s popularity has grown since the Senna documentary in 2010, bringing in new fans who can learn about his story.
The split screen feature that pulls in up to four channels at once launched on smart TVs last year, and iOS last month — now it’s Android’s turn. Google spokesperson Allison Toh confirmed to The Verge that the launch started today, and said it’ll roll out to all Android phones and tablets over the next few weeks.
Following a report by Puck’s John Ourand that ESPN has carved out a piece of the new NBA media landscape, The Athletic added an Amazon rumor:
It is expected that Prime Video’s package will include significant regular season and postseason games, perhaps even some conference finals. The anticipation is that the final contract will be for at least a decade and begin the 2025-2026 season.
If the deals go through, this might add streaming NBA games on Thursdays when Amazon’s NFL games aren’t on.
[The Athletic]
According to the WSJ, Amazon, YouTube, and Peacock are all in the mix alongside incumbents Warner and Disney, with the possibility of snagging global streaming rights for some games.
When these deals kick in after 2024-2025, they’ll exist alongside the three-headed effort from Disney, Fox, and WBD, standalone ESPN, Netflix and the WWE, the NBA’s FAST channel and who knows what else.
Amazon continues to bolsters its sports offerings, this time by nabbing regional streaming rights for the NHL’s Seattle Kraken. Starting next season, Prime Video will be home to the team’s “non-nationally televised” games in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, including “preseason, regular season, and the first round of playoffs.” Bad news for subscribers if the Kraken make a deep run in 2025.
Aaron LaBerge is a big name at ESPN and Disney — he’s been there most of the last two decades, overseeing a lot of big projects including the recent Hulu / Disney Plus combination. He cited “personal reasons” for leaving in a note to staff, but also has a new job: after working on the joint betting project between ESPN and Penn Entertainment, he’s Penn’s new CTO.
Both companies filed affidavits in support of Fubo, which is suing to block WBD, ESPN, and Fox’s sports streaming package, The Desk reports.
DirecTV exec Rob Thun wrote that the company has “grave concerns” about the joint venture, saying it could prevent DirecTV from offering “smaller sports-focused bundles of channels.”
The latest entrant into the world of FAST (free ad-supported streaming, like Tubi and Pluto TV) is the NBA. Today it’s introducing the new, free, channel and the NBA Zone that will be exclusive to the Roku Channel for a limited time.
While it might try to upsell viewers to an NBA League Pass subscription, the only live games in it will be from the G League this season, along with highlights, classic games, and more.