{"id":650103,"date":"2013-04-02T13:00:17","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T17:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=626499"},"modified":"2013-04-02T13:00:17","modified_gmt":"2013-04-02T17:00:17","slug":"mlbs-big-bet-on-mobile-apps-pays-off-on-opening-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/650103","title":{"rendered":"MLB\u2019s big bet on mobile apps pays off on Opening Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

My definition of a great Opening Day: When your team\u2019s pitcher hits a home run and throws a complete game shutout against your archrival<\/a>. Major League Baseball executives are celebrating a different Opening Day milestone: the skyrocketing popularity of the league\u2019s official mobile app, At Bat. On Tuesday, MLB announced that the At Bat app, which is available for iOS, Android and BlackBerry, was accessed 6 million times on Monday, the first day of baseball\u2019s 2013 season. That\u2019s double the amount of use the\u00a0app\u00a0saw on Opening Day 2012.<\/p>\n

The league has offered mobile apps for several years and has continued to attract new app users each season by experimenting with pricing structures, adding new features and most importantly, giving fans ways to access its live and archived content on a phone or tablet. The audience has historically been made up of mostly iOS users, who account for 70 percent of the free At Bat app downloads and 85 percent of the paid app downloads. But MLB\u2019s Advanced Media office, which develops those apps, says Android use has been growing recently.<\/p>\n

Baseball\u2019s mobile app audience is interesting because it\u2019s not like the TV watching audience \u2014 MLB apps are not just used by fans who aren\u2019t at a game.\u00a0MLB has deftly built its online and mobile viewing audience by understanding that and embracing the ubiquity of mobile devices. MLB Advanced Media CEO Bob Bowman \u2014 who will be speaking at paidContent Live 2013 this month in New York City<\/a> \u2014 told me recently that\u00a0for younger fans, the smartphone \u201cis the first screen, not second screen\u201d and that any app the league makes \u201chas to have everything\u201d if they want to engage and keep those fans around for years.<\/p>\n

Today MLB apps can be used as\u00a0a mobile baseball ticket<\/a>, and to check in, get coupons for merchandise, order food and even upgrade your seat during the game<\/a> with MLB mobile apps \u2014 and, of course, to watch or listen to games when you\u2019re not near a TV.<\/p>\n

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