App: ESPN ScoreCenter

Available for: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Price: Free

Rating: 4/5 downloads

With basketball and football in full swing both professionally and at Syracuse University, there are more teams and scores to keep track of than ever. That is where ‘ESPN ScoreCenter’comes in. With the application, users can get instant scores, statistics and news on any team in any league. With a clean design, ‘ScoreCenter’ is clear and easy to use.

The app opens to a main screen on which the user can scroll through different sports menus. Users then choose the sports from which they would like to see results. This is where ‘ScoreCenter’sets itself apart from other sports apps. The user can select from the most popular sports to the more obscure, such as lacrosse, mixed martial arts or even cricket. Whatever your sport of choice, ‘ScoreCenter’ will have the information for it.

Once the user has his or her favorite sport chosen, a tap on a particular game instantly brings up stats from the action. The app provides a list of top performers, stats leaders and the standings for that team’s league. Every game also links to a page on ESPN’s mobile website on which users can read full recaps of games, as well as see a more comprehensive list of team and player stats.

The app also has one of ESPN’s signature features, the Bottom Line, which is a ticker on the bottom of the screen that runs through the latest scores. The Bottom Line runs through headlining news from different parts of the sports world and offers a link to ESPN’s mobile website.

If the user wants it, the app will send breaking sports news alerts and frequent score updates to the device. For example, if the Syracuse basketball team is playing, the app can send an alert for when the game begins, the halftime score and the final score. While the exact notifications vary for every sport, such as getting a message for every inning in baseball or every quarter in football, the user is able to customize which ones to receive based on his or her personal preferences.

If the small iPhone keyboard just isn’t cutting it and a larger screen will better serve your sporting needs, you can log on to ESPN’s website from any computer to make changes to your profile with ease. Users can sign up for a free membership and choose their favorite teams and sports to follow. Log back on to ‘ScoreCenter’ and see your changes reflected on your mobile myTeams menu.

As with other free apps available, ‘ScoreCenter’ carries advertisements on every screen. However, the designers do a good job of making them small and non-intrusive. They appear near the very bottom of the screen and change every time the user switches screens. Not only are the ads a tolerable size, they are usually relevant to a sports fan, such as an upcoming ESPN coverage of a game or show.

The biggest downfall of ‘ScoreCenter’ is the need for a Wi-Fi connection. This is not a problem with an iPhone, but with the iPod Touch, a Wi-Fi connection is necessary to access any information, making viewing stats on-the-go harder. This is the only major problem with the app, dragging its rating down from a perfect score.

It doesn’t matter if sports are a No. 1 love or just a hobby. ESPN’s ‘ScoreCenter’ is a simple way to follow everything happening in the sports world.

nerivera@syr.edu

Published on November 16, 2010 at 12:00 pm