The Super Bowl will be played in less than two weeks, the NBA, NHL, soccer leagues around the world and other sports in the midst of their seasons, and MLB pitchers and catchers reporting in less than a month, for fans of sport there’s no shortage of games to watch and scores to follow.
For fans who want to not only watch and follow games, but want to engage in real-time conversation with friends and other fans, PlayUp is the app for you.
PlayUp is a mobile social network allowing sports fans to follow their choice of thousands of live games in real time while simultaneously discussing the action with fellow fans on their mobile devices.
The free app includes real-time scoring and stats, along with the option to create private rooms to discuss the action with friends or join public rooms to interact with fans from around the world – play by play and pitch by pitch.
The free app features real-time scoring and stats for every NFL, college football, NHL, NBA, MLB, and MLS game, as well as soccer, cricket and Australian Rules Football around the globe. That amounts to 20,000 live games per year.
According to Jonathan Press, CEO of PlayUp USA:
“There is no better platform for social interactivity than sports, but until now the industry has been unable to marry live sports and social. Fans share their comments at games, tailgate parties, watercoolers, and on sports talk radio. We’ll make it easier. Now they have the opportunity to tell the world or select groups of friends instantly and in the palm of their hand. No need to be alone on the couch anymore watching the game.”
The app is nice, but it’s not without a few issues.
To begin, the app is only as good as the number of people using the service, users currently numbering less than 100,000. As such, one of the chief draws of the app, the chatrooms are ghost towns.
PlayUp encourages inviting others to use the app through Facebook integration. Not a bad idea, but you have to invite friends using only Facebook and when you add your Facebook account to PlayUp, a disgusting, annoying, ad for PlayUp is posted to your Facebook Timeline. Horrid.
Another issue with the app is its scoreboard.
In addition to sports like the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB, you’ll also find listings for rugby, cricket, Australian rules football, and soccer leagues. There is no option to narrow down the scoreboard’s focus with only those sports and/or teams you care about.
As you can see below, the scoreboard isn’t easy on the eyes. It’s cluttered and feels disjointed.
Overall PlayUp is a nice app currently available for Apple’s iOS devices, with Android and Windows Phone 7 versions in the works. If you’re a sports fan and want a solid way to follow your favorite teams/sports while discussing games with others as they happen, grab PlayUp and let us know your thoughts below!
Author : Jeff Cormier – http://about.me/jffcrmr
