Sinclair readies new sports video app, pushes on gamification

Sinclair Broadcast Group is nearing completion on a reconstructed new mobile application that will support its sports streaming efforts, particularly those from its portfolio of 21 regional sports networks, and broader gamification strategy, representing a key effort in the company’s stated goal to “make watching sports similar to playing a video game.”

The new streaming app, to replace the existing Fox Sports Go, will carry new Bally’s branding as part of Sinclair’s large-scale naming rights deal with the gaming operator for the RSNs that is reportedly worth $85m. The app is set to debut around the start of the Major League Baseball season in April.

More broadly, the new digital product will also represent a key touchpoint in Sinclair’s aggressive corporate strategy to infuse much more gamification and sports betting content into the overall sports viewing experience, in part through the Bally’s deal. Sinclair president Chris Ripley called the app no less than a “new paradigm for how viewers can watch and interact with major local sporting events.”

“The app will provide significant enhanced functionality and a new design that will be a key enabler for our initiatives around the gamification of sports viewing,” Ripley said. “Just to give you an idea of the improvement of the new app and its increased capabilities, when we initially launch, the first phase of the app will allow authenticated users the ability to watch games, with features like being able to rewind and view a replay, easily search for enhanced statistics and programming, including all the content that airs on our FSNS, as well as enjoy increased news coverage about the teams and games.

“Importantly, the new app will allow us to better monetize hundreds of millions of digital impressions that are currently not being fully optimized on the existing Fox Sports Go app. We expect the new app will be an important component in helping drive increased revenue growth and profitability for our local sports business in the future,” he said.

The app will also include a series of free-to-play contests, rewards, and features to engage with other fans.

“The idea is to make watching sports similar to playing a video game,” Ripley said.