Apple Sports Is Getting More Serious About Football
Apple
Days ahead of the start of the football season, Apple is once again updating its Sports app with improved ways of watching your favorite NFL and NCAA teams.
Football coverage is new to Apple Sports, having been introduced earlier in the month as part of the version 1.6 update. With it, fans can follow NFL teams “all season long in real time” and check the “scores, stats, play-by-play, and more,” (the “more” being real-time betting odds) for all the NCAA Division 1 conferences and teams.
On Thursday, Apple announced that the Sports App will now offer an improved play-by-play mechanic, “offering quick access to scoring drives presented alongside the view of every play.” The company is also implementing a “dynamic drive tracker” that shows a visualization of where the ball is on the field during any given play and is expanding its college football coverage with weekly updates about the Top 25.
When iOS 18 and WatchOS 11 drop later this fall, Apple plans to bring Live Activities to the Sports app. This will allow you to receive ongoing updates about a game through your iPhone’s Dynamic Island space and scoring updates on your watch’s lock screen. In an update coming later in the year, Apple plans to introduce a new drop-down navigation for the main scorecard views. This should help streamline switching between your favored leagues and teams.
Apple Sports currently covers the NFL, NCAAF, MLS, MLB, NBA, WNBA, NCAA basketball, NHL, NWSL, Premier League, Bundesliga, LaLiga, Liga MX, Ligue 1, Serie A. Champions League and Europa League are coming to the app in September, once their seasons start up.
Apple Sports is available to download from the App Store in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, though you will need to run iOS 17.2 or higher on your iPhone to use it.
Source: Apple