The soccer tournaments just hit a tipping point with real-time scores this weekend. Over 14% of the traffic in the past three days (Fri, Sat and Sun) was generated by smart phones such as Blackberrys, iPhones, Treos and other web-enabled phones. This is up from almost nothing Memorial Day weekend.
This is a tipping point at such a low percentage because we saw the same thing with the adoption of broadband, which pushed the high-traffic-day from the day after the tournament at work to consistently high levels throughout the event. Almost overnight, the day shifted back as more homes got broadband. Similarly, we saw the same thing with photo sales decline as a result of lower-prices consumer cameras that were capable of taking high-quality photos. A double-digit percentage of use indicates a major behavioral shift.
Teams are sending emails to the tournament FROM THE FIELDS if the scores are not now updated within minutes of the games ending. The tolerance for most people appears to be about an hour and a half wait-time at this point, but by this time next year, that will be about half, if at all.
Typical patterns for people who send complaint emails tend to be a very targeted search for specific division results. While not entirely pinpoint accurate, the pattern appears to be a constant reloading of the results page every 30 seconds or so after the conclusion of the game. When the scores do not appear to be updated regularly, the emails start.
Our Advice: If you don’t have a system to report scores in real-time, GET ONE NOW! The internet is no longer confined to a computer people check when they get back home. Your teams are always on-line so treat your web site as something teams will be accessing all day, every day. Tournaments will be divided by the haves (real-time scores) and the have-nots (no real-time scores) rapidly. (www.tourneycentral.com web sites have real-time scores built into the modules.)