Looking for local sports fixtures? There’s an app for that.
Schedules, scores, updates and general sporting news will be just a click away for Bajan fans from next month after private company Cigno Enterprises announced the launch of its new sports application called eScoreIt.
Principal founder Terry Inniss revealed the nature of the app in an interview with SATURDAY?SPORT three weeks ahead of the January 4 release date.
“What this app does is allow sporting organizations to upload schedules, scores and news as well as standings to their general public without the cost of printing a lot of paper or the inconvenience of sending out multiple emails and text messages,” reasoned Inniss, a business analyst at Barbados Light & Power.
“Sporting bodies can subscribe for a yearly nominal fee but the app will be freely available for all users initially on the BlackBerry app world as well as the Android market before we eventually make it available for iPhone and Windows after January.
“And we’ve been getting some good responses already after making contact with organizations that said they would be interested. Local netball, basketball, volleyball and road tennis have all expressed great interest as this could only be a positive for their sports,” he added.
According to Inniss, the interested associations would pay that nominal fee up front and can upload any information they see fit onto the application which will give any users instant access to things like live scores, updated fixtures and breaking news.
The associations can even lease it out to their membership in cases where a group of people want to host out-of-season tournaments and disseminate their information in the same manner.
And eScoreIt won’t just be restricted to mobile devices either, with the app being made available for the Web and featuring player profiles plus other features sometime later in the year.
“Right now the BABA sends out the schedule via spreadsheet and trying to read it on a four-inch BlackBerry screen doesn’t work very well, so this will be a lifesaver for those of us who aren’t always around a desktop and laptop,” reasoned the former BABA president.
“Then when these associations make changes to their fixtures, they will be seen immediately by the sport’s general body instead of the associations having to constantly send out updates over these changes.
“And you can’t tell me everyone doesn’t have a smartphone in this day [and age] as there are 15-year-olds currently walking about with these phones. It’s just too much of a benefit for these associations for them not to consider the option,” he added.
Inniss says his group eventually wants to roll out eScoreIt to other countries across the Caribbean.
