Apple Launches Free, Customizable iPhone App for Sports Fans

Apple has launched a free iPhone app for sports fans.

The new Apple Sports provides access to real-time scores, stats, and other information about teams and leagues, the company said in a Wednesday (Feb. 21) press release.

The app is now available in the App Store in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, according to the release. It supports English and, where available, French and Spanish.

“We created Apple Sports to give sports fans what they want — an app that delivers incredibly fast access to scores and stats,” Eddy Cue, senior vice president of services at Apple, said in the release.

The app is designed for speed and simplicity, featuring an easy-to-use interface, according to the release.

It lets users create a personalized experience by customizing the app to follow their favorite teams, tournaments and leagues, per the release.

Users can also navigate between scores and upcoming games; view play-by-play information, team stats, lineup details and other information; and tap to go to the Apple TV app to watch live games, the release said.

In addition, Apple Sports will seamlessly sync with favorites the user has selected in the My Sports experience, including in the Apple TV app and Apple News, according to the release.

Apple reported on Feb. 1 that its services ecosystem grew 11% year over year in its fiscal 2024 first quarter after growing 16% during the previous quarter.

The latest metric represented an “all time revenue record with paid subscriptions growing double digits year over year,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the company’s quarterly earnings call.

There were “well over” 1 billion paid subscriptions across the company’s platform, more than double the tally that had been seen four years ago, Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said during the call.

In another recent move in the sports space, it was reported in early February that Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Rob Manfred aims to introduce a direct-to-consumer (D2C) streaming service for the league by 2025.

In late January, Comcast reported that its streaming platform Peacock is seeing rapid growth by leveraging exclusive sports content to drive adoption in the face of stiff competition.