An increasing number of global sporting events are providing rich information about performance.
On 18 February it was announced that ESPNCricinfo, has secured IBM as the sponsor of its statistics and data coverage of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup.
A press announcement on iSportConnect added that:
- IBM has been confirmed as launch sponsor of the new ESPNCricinfo iPhone and Android mobile applications.
- The sponsorship builds on IBM’s Smarter Planet campaign.
- The deal gives IBM a presence on Statsguru, Ask Steven, The List, and, Numbers Game.
Anubhav Goyal points out that the agreement comes at a time when:
ESPNcricinfo enjoys record growth, in India and worldwide. The site commanded 57% of total sports website traffic, or page views, in India, according to ComScore data for December 2010. Additionally, the site accounted for 65% of all time spent consuming online sports media in India, according to ComScore data for December 2010. Boosted by interest in the test series between South Africa and India – the top two-ranked Test sides globally – ESPNcricinfo recorded a new monthly record audience for the third month in a row in December, and broke the 20 million global unique browser barrier for the first time.
[…] The difference between 2007 and 2011 can be seen in data about online behaviours at the 2011 Cricket World Cup. In February I posted about ESPNCricinfo and IBM’s partnership at the 2011 Cricket World Cup. […]