About six years ago, two men at ESPN had a vision to serve high school sports fans in much the same way the company was delivering the most comprehensive sports data to college and pro sports fans.
Ultimately, ESPN decided to go in another direction, but Dan Beach – an entrepreneur hired by the global sports giant about a decade ago to help them figure out the mobile phone business – decided to press on with his vision.
After leaving ESPN, Beach moved to Spokane, Washington, to be closer to his son, who plays on Mark Few’s Gonzaga basketball team.
Beach also founded Scorebook Live, one of the easiest data-entry apps in existence. And the small company with a big vision was off and running in Spokane.
Scorebook Live found an active audience in the world of high school sports, quickly gaining a foothold in Washington. The Spokane Spokesman-Review partnered with the company and created nwpreps.com, a brand specifically for high school sports in that part of the state.
Now, a little more than six years later, Scorebook Live is the official data provider for the state of California and has deep ties with high schools and their state organizations in Oregon and Washington. A Fort Myers, Florida, radio station has published live data on its website for the past two years. The area is home to powerhouse football programs.
One of the features of the app is that it collects (and distributes) all of the data in real time, and coaches don’t need to phone in scores and stats to local media. It’s all right there, immediately after the game. In fact, Scorebook Live even uses artificial intelligence to generate a short game story immediately after the game ends.
The business model for the company features a free app. It’s free for everyone – anyone can download the app, register as the “agent” for that school and begin delivering live data.
Fans also will access the data at no charge. Simply launching a web browser anywhere in the world will allow someone to follow CHS Bulldogs football, play-by-play, in real time, starting with the Fall 2019 season.
Scorebook Live also offers basketball coverage, and The Chronicle’s plans call for the CHS boys’ and girls’ basketball teams to also use the app during the Winter 2019-20 season, with other teams added in the future. Current development includes adding the ability to deliver real-time scoring for any sporting event.
Disclaimer: Noel Nash is a co-founder and partner in the Scorebook Live company. He and Dan Beach worked at ESPN together on high school – hyperlocal – data collection.
