We have apps for everything nowadays. Your phone is packed with handy ones like calendars to monitor appointments, games to kill some boredom, and you can even get membership apps for your favourite stores. One particular set of app users are very lucky indeed though, and they are sports fans. Why?
Sports fans have access to an abundance of different apps that give them everything they could ever need. Want to watch a game on the train? There is an app for that. Feel like seeing what goes on behind the scenes of your favourite team? A developer somewhere will have you covered. Heck, you can even get a sports betting app if you like to add a little more excitement to your favourite sports.
But what are the essential apps for sports fans? Which are the apps that every user should have on their phone? Well, we’re going to tell you the apps we think need to be downloaded to ensure you never miss a minute of the action, both in-game and out.
FlashScore
Ok, so if you’re going to download any app from our app, this is the one you’re going to want. It comes available on Android and iOS devices, is free, and is packed full of everything you could ever want to know about your favourite sports. Need live scores? It has your back. Want to check the recent form of your favourite team? Can’t watch the game but don’t want to miss it? They’ve live commentary for most events.
It has so many features, and I don’t believe there is an app that is quicker than FlashScore in giving you real-time updates. But what is best of all is that it doesn’t just focus on a limited number of sports, it covers almost everything. Football, baseball, hockey, Badminton, Handball, Water Polo, you get the idea. If it’s a sport, they will have live coverage for any event happening.
Source: https://www.flashscore.co.uk/
YouTube
So this one isn’t a dedicated sports app, but again, it’s available on all devices and is free. Almost every sports team, every governing body in sport, and even some sports stars, have their own YouTube channels. Because of that, there is a lot of content put out that you can’t find elsewhere. From highlights, behind the scenes footage, exclusive interviews, you name it, you’ll find videos on it there.
There are also compilations created by fans, and chat shows/podcasts with fan groups that discuss the latest news, issues, controversies and results in all sports. Then on top of that, you can comment on the videos with others and get into some really good discussions and learn about other people’s opinions that get you thinking about things in a way you may not have thought about before, which is great to see.
The Athletic
We’ve had a couple of free apps, now it’s time for a paid one, and one of the best available. The Athletic is a news app that is accessed via a paid subscription service, mainly covering UK and US sports. But the quality of the journalism is second to none, and they have some really good exclusives on there, from interviews to opinion pieces.
The good thing is, you can usually get something along the lines of a 7-day free trial to get a feel for the app. Then, if you decide to keep the subscription going, you can do so on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis, with subscribing for longer time periods leading to bigger discounts.
Source: https://theathletic.co.uk/1807940/2020/07/02/please-update-your-app-to-continue-reading/
DAZN
One of the new players to the market is DAZN, an app that is going global and making waves in the sports scene. The best way to describe what they do is they’re trying to become the Netflix of sports. Subscribe to their service, and get unrestricted to all their content, although it is restricted somewhat by geographical location. But you can get a VPN to help unblock geo-restricted content.
Time will limit what content they have, with the owners of DAZN having to sit and wait for television rights to come up for sale, which means they are restricted right now. It could be a few years before we see NFL games there, or matches from the English Premier League, but to show their determination to be a big player, just look at their recent boxing deal. They signed a multi-million pound deal with some promoters to secure the biggest fights for the next few years.
Final Words
There are a whole host of apps that are available, and these are just the tip of the iceberg. A mix of free and paid for applications, available on all devices, that help you make the most of your smart devices so you don’t miss a minute of the action. There are some old favourites and new players on the scene, and there will no doubt be more newcomers in the future. But for now, these have to be our best apps available across the board as they give you a little bit of everything.
What apps do you use? Anything missing from the above that you think we should check out? Let us know in the comments or on our socials, and who knows, maybe we’ll do a new list in the future and include your recommendations.
