Online football broadcasts

Until recently, football online, available on the Russian Internet, was aimed at people who themselves do not watch the match. They were (and in most cases still are), in fact, only a text tape of events that are recorded with varying degrees of accuracy by the author who watches the game. All this somehow does not fit with the data of recent studies, according to which 42 percent of Americans while watching sporting events at the same time follow them on the Internet - just by stating the events they have seen so many people are not interested. Sports.ru

TeamWhile developing a new online format for Euro 2008, I tried to decipher the motivation of a huge online audience in the USA - and something seemed to work out. Today, in the open beta mode, we broadcast online the Moscow Champions League final Manchester United - Chelsea . If something can attract the attention of a person watching a game on TV (or, which is now also not uncommon, through Internet video), then this is all kinds of additional information about the match, interesting visualization and a “live” discussion of what is happening.

ESPN.com , NBA.com , Soccernet.com , Marca.esand a number of Western sites provide this functionality quite successfully, and when developing a new online format, we focused primarily on them.



As the first test esters showed ( Spartak - Saturn , Moscow - Wings of the Soviets ), this format is in demand, although it’s not easy to implement.


From our partners, the company InStatFootball (it supplies detailed football statistics not only to Sports.ru, but also to the coaches of many football teams in Russia), the broadcast required the ability to parse the game live using special software, without the possibility of using pause and rewind. And from us - the need to configure the fastest possible reception and output of data. Landing a journalist to describe the shots on goal would, of course, be much easier :)

It turned out, of course, not all. Firstly, the online page in its current form requires a lot of resources. In order not to force the user to overload the page with the flash container, you have to periodically update all HTML blocks with Ajax - when you view several such online browsers at the same time, it slows down. Secondly, not all users liked the automatic feed of events - and some, mistaking it for journalism, began to blame the author for the parsimony of the wording :) Well, and thirdly, each of those reading this text will surely find some other omissions and opportunities for improvement - for which I express my gratitude to everyone in advance.


However, before Euro 2008 - another two and a half weeks, and beta testing, in addition to the final match of the Champions League, we will continue at friendly matches of the Russian team.