Sport Social has been developed by digital assistant software developer Voiceworks, which said a third of smart speaker owners want to access sport content through voice commands
Sport Social will enable Alexa and Google Assistant users to access Premier League content this season
“Alexa, how did Newcastle United get on in the Premier League?”
This could be the new way of getting updates on the English top flight when a smart speaker content service launches to coincide with the start of the 2019-20 football season this weekend.
Sport Social, developed by London technology company Voiceworks, is said to be the first of its kind to provide human-voiced, in-depth news updates on the Premier League through devices such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home.
Due to be released on Saturday (10 August) and also available on smartphones worldwide, it will offer about 150 updates on the competition each week.
Head of Sport Social Jim Salveson said: “Sport Social is going to offer fans of the Premier League worldwide something different – on-demand, human-voiced coverage of the English Premier League.
“Football fans are no longer prepared to wait for the audio content they receive via traditional media and so Sport Social is giving them to access match reports, daily team updates and podcasts whenever and wherever they want it.
“This world-first is a great way to launch Sport Social and we have some big plans for its growth to other competitions and sports in the near future.”
How Premier League news will be delivered on Alexa using Sport Social
Research by data intelligence firm GlobalData last year predicted the number of smart speakers in the world would double from 100 million at the end of 2018 to 200 million by 2020.
According to Sport Social, more than a third of smart speaker owners want sport content to be made more available on their devices.
In a bid to fill this gap, the service will provide fans from across the world with access to premium audio content in the form of short daily updates using Alexa or Google Assistant that are specific to their favourite Premier League club.
Content, which is triggered by saying the phrase “open Sport Social”, will include team line-ups, post-match reviews within an hour of full-time and daily podcasts featuring football pundits and experts.
A professional in-house team of journalists and broadcasters will take the place of the traditional T2S robotic voice usually heard on smart speakers to deliver the news.
Voiceworks is a voice-first agency focused on creating technology and content for the digital assistant marketplace.
Managing director Sophie Hind said: “The opportunity for voice activation is at an all-time high with speech recognition now at 95%.
“It’s estimated that half of all searches will be made via voice-technology next year so it’s crucial that brands consider their voice-activated offering and strategy.
“With our broad range of technology, search and broadcast skills, Voiceworks can offer differentiated services that help clients develop all elements of voice experience.”