With the FIFA World Cup finally here, fans from all over the world flock to Russia in order to see their favorite players and root for their national teams. Nevertheless, even those who are back at home aren’t at that much of a disadvantage, seeing as how they can track live scores, follow news and even gamify this entire FIFA World Cup experience through their smartphones like never before. In order to achieve this, they’ll need some powerful apps on their side and here are 6 of them you just might want to take a closer look at.
1. FIFA Official App
The greatest problem with news nowadays is in the fact that anyone can type in virtually anything, which causes a substantial problem when it comes to the reliability of the information. Therefore, those who want to get the essentials on all the major occurrences on the World Cup need to download the FIFA Official App. There, you get all the latest updates and even get the privilege of watching live games. Aside from this, you get to set your favorite teams and get live notifications, should there be any last-minute change to their roster or, by any chance, you miss a game.
2. ESPN
The massive advantage of ESPN lies in the fact that, while incredibly potent as the World Cup monitoring tool, it doesn’t shut you off from the rest of the world either. You get to follow scores and highlights over this app and still get to check latest NFL, NBA or NHL results. Nonetheless, in the month of the World Cup, most of the alerts you’ll receive will be related to soccer. Moreover, if you’re also interested in user-generated content (UGC), you can listen to podcasts, radio stations and much more during the break days or in between games.
3. Onefootball Soccer News
Unfortunately, not everyone has the privilege of watching every single football game as it comes up. Luckily, with a bit of scheduling, you can at least keep track of your national team (as well as several other selections), while keeping the track of scoreboard and game results using the Onefootball Soccer News (iTunes/GooglePlay) app. The UI is also incredibly user-friendly and this is an app you’ll be able to use even after the World Cup is over. As an alternative, you could also turn to SofaScore, which fills more or less the same niche. The latter even shows ratings of players currently on the field (based on their performance so-far) which is one of its most interesting features.
4. BBC Sport
For a complete and professional coverage of World Cup, the BBC Sport app is second to none. The greatest advantage of this app lies in the fact that so many people already use it, which made their transition since the beginning of the tournament much smoother. On the downside, not all of the happenings on BBC sport are World Cup-oriented, yet, this is not necessarily a disadvantage. Nevertheless, those looking for a bit more specialized app might want to look elsewhere.
5. Goal Fantasy Football
Last but in no way least important thing you need to understand is the fact that, for some people, World Cup is not a complete experience without fantasy football. During this tournament, you and some of your closest friends can even organize a mini-league, thus making this entire experience even more compelling. Unlike national teams, you’ll still have a budget (like in the regular version of this game), which will ensure that both you and your friends have a much more even and unpredictable experience.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, it’s more than clear that the choice of the app greatly depends on your own expectations and interests. Therefore, it’s absurd to speak about an ideal app or even the best app (for that matter). In other words, this depends on who do you trust, do your interests in soccer end with the end of the World Cup and whether you’re interested in gamifying this watching experience or just following the score.
