Football live stream

Until recently, football online, available on the Russian Internet, were focused on people who do not watch the match themselves. They were themselves (and in most cases - they are still), in fact, only a text tape of events, which the observer of the game captures with varying degrees of accuracy. All this somehow does not fit with the latest research data, according to which 42 percent of Americans watch sports on the Internet at the same time — only it’s not interesting for people to see events that they have already seen.

The Sports.ru team, developing a new online format for Euro 2008, tried to decipher the motivation of a huge online audience in the US - and something seemed to work. Today, in open beta mode, we are broadcasting the online Moscow final of the Champions League Manchester United - Chelsea . If something is possible to attract the attention of a person watching the game on TV (or, which is now also not uncommon, through Internet video), then this is all sorts of additional information about the game, interesting visualization and live discussion of what is happening.

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

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As the first, test esters showed ( Spartak - Saturn , Moscow - Krylya Sovetov ), such a format is in demand - although it is 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 Russian football teams), 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 reception and return data. It would have been much easier, of course, to plant a journalist to describe a shot on goal.

It turned out, of course, not all. First, the online page in its current form requires quite a lot of resources. In order not to force the user to reload the page with the flash container, it is necessary to periodically update all HTML blocks with an AYAX — when viewing several such online, the browser slows down at the same time. Secondly, not all users liked the automatic tape of events - and some, having taken it for journalism, began to reproach the author for the stinginess of the wording :) Well, and thirdly, everyone who reads this text will surely find some other omissions and opportunities for improvements - for which I thank everyone in advance.


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