MLB App
The 6th Annual Awards
- Best App or Mobile Experience
ABOUT THIS ENTRY
As the world’s longest-running sports league app, the MLB App brings the fan experience to life. The MLB App offers a groundbreaking development in the realm of sports entertainment and shatters the boundaries of traditional viewing, offering an immersive and interactive spectacle that seamlessly connects the stadium to the screen. Whether fans are at home or in the stadium, the MLB App offers a personalized experience that enables easy access to the game, highlights, content and more.
How does this represent “Excellence in Engagement”?
Major League Baseball has continued to prioritize technological innovation for decades as a means of enhancing fan experiences. MLB is committed to implementing new ways of enjoying baseball by introducing new updates and features to beloved products. MLB has been a leader in mobile app technology since its groundbreaking debut of one of the first 500 apps in Apple’s App Store in 2008, the MLB App. The mission of MLB’s digital platforms is to engage fans and constantly provide them with customizable, fun options to follow baseball and interact with our sport however they want. MLB wants to continually evolve the unique way they present baseball to fans and this major revitalization of the MLB app brings them closer to that objective than any time in the last 15 years. The MLB App not only enriches the way fans consume baseball, but it also pioneers a new era for sports entertainment, inspiring future technological advancements in the industry.
Objective
The new features introduced to the app have brought fans closer to the game. Whether fans are home or in the ballpark, the MLB app allows for easy access to their favorite players' stats, highlights, news and more as it increases the visibility of their favorite teams and live games. Fans can learn more about the game with Gameday mode and the new Gameday 3D as it adds graphical overlays to their stream. These data-driven visualizations include information for each bat, including pitch type and location, speed, spin rate and pitch movement. Not able to tune in? No problem as this season introduced new iOS technology available to those with iOS 16+ devices. Live activities enable fans to track teams’ games right on their lock screen. So even if they can’t watch or listen, they can still stay up-to-the-minute with their favorite team and anticipated games, hands-free. MLB continues to deliver bleeding-edge experiences -- from breakthrough live streaming to personalized apps -- giving fans what they want, when they want it with high-quality video, lightning-fast live stats, engaging visualizations, exclusive content and mobile-first experiences.
Strategy & Execution
Ahead of the 2023 season, MLB incorporated extensive fan feedback to implement innovative enhancements to the user experience. As fans were looking for more watch features and access to their favorite players/ teams, MLB gave them just that and more with cleaner, more visual experiences and new features rolled out all season long. MLB prioritized personalization for each user as it created custom Home feeds based on the fan’s favorite teams and players, personalized news and video and up-to-the-minute live game snapshots. The Watch hub now features more live video from MLB.TV and MLB Network that is curated based on the fan’s preferences. With MLB Film Room Powered by Google Cloud better embedded in the MLB app, every fan can search the deepest on-demand baseball video library anywhere from their mobile device. New this season is Live Activities, where fans with supported Apple devices can track their favorite team’s game hands-free, live on their lock screen. New in 2023 is Gameday 3D; a brand-new experience that allows fans to see the game from impossible angles using Sony Hawk-Eye cameras and technology at every Major League ballpark to track the position and orientation of 29 joints on each pro player.
Organizations
- Major League Baseball
- Google Cloud
Links
Credits
Josh Frost
Vice President, Product Management
MLB
Mike Finkel
Vice President, Engineering
MLB
Michael Phelps
Senior Director, Mobile Engineering
MLB
John Ipson
Senior Director, Engineering
MLB
Bill Blair
Director, Product Design
MLB
Angela Murtha
Principal Software Engineer
MLB
Malcolm Wilson
Principal Engineer
MLB
Bryan Pauk
Principal Software Engineer
MLB
Kyle Schad
Director, Program Management
MLB
Russel Munson
Director, Engineering - Baseball Data Front End
MLB
Ben Rangel
Senior Software Engineer
MLB
Shane Stafford
Senior Software Engineer
MLB
Brett Fedack
Senior Software Engineer
MLB
Christian Roman
Software Developer
MLB
Chris Nicotera
Senior Software Engineer
MLB
Vernon Martin
Senior Product Manager, MLB App
MLB
Marco Louvado
Senior Product Manager
MLB
Jeff Berk
Senior Product Manager, Baseball Data
MLB
Joel Feinberg
Senior Product Manager, Baseball Data
MLB
Adam Lowenthal
Senior Product Manager
MLB
Nick Gertonson
Senior Product Manager
MLB
Ed Markey
Senior Product Designer (Web)
MLB
Sophia Kamvisios
Technical Project Manager
MLB
Jordan Locke
Technical Project Manager
MLB
Douglas Mason
Software Test Engineer
MLB
Adam Smith
QA Analyst
MLB
Celebrate in NYC
Join us for the 6th Annual Hashtag Sports Awards™ on the evening of June 6, 2024 as we celebrate finalists and reveal the winners of this year's awards live during the show.
