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Major League Baseball, Real-time Data, and At-Bats

· One min read
DALL·E prompt: Baseball fans watching a homerun video on their mobile phone, digital art
Pete Goddard
Beat-the-Streak with open and real-time engagement

Major League Baseball’s competition committee recently introduced rule changes to shorten the length of games via a pitch clock and to improve hitting by eliminating the shift.

The league is reacting to an appetite for action and offense – from both current and contemplated baseball fans.

We embraced that spirit in creating a quick video to demonstrate the under-tapped value of one of MLB’s current assets: Its Beat-the-Streak fantasy game.

With 8 quick minutes, you’ll see:

  • a prototype of real-time, interactive user experiences if Beat-the-Streak had open Streak league data and the MLB directly published pitch-by-pitch updates on the web for free,
  • evidence of a winning 57-game streak (worth a hypothetical $5.6 million),
  • an appeal for the league to make single at-bats available to consumers.

How many people would have happily responded to a notification to watch Aaron Judge’s plate appearances in real time over the last many weeks? We all missed an opportunity there. (Perhaps MLB did, too.)