Google has now launched a dedicated sports hub ‘ The Matchup’ where sports fans will get all the coverage of local sports in one place. It will showcase professional and college sports news covered by the best local reporters across the US and Canada. The Matchup is a single stop shop for all the news related to local sports.
Notably, The Matchup service from Google is similar to that of another premium sports subscription service, The Athletic. For the unaware, The Athletic provides high-quality sports content and in-depth information. The benefit of The Matchup is that you don’t have to buy a subscription of every individual news outlet. You will get access to all the latest news about your favorite local team or opposition in a single place.
The official Google blog about The Matchup reads, “the concept was born out of the notion that in order for local journalism to thrive, individual news organizations must lean into creating content and product experiences for our readers that is both unique and differentiated, and that we might need to collaborate with each other in the process.”
The Matchup pages will utilize AMP web technology of Google
Moreover, the post further adds, “That idea, which had the pet name “Sportsball” for most of its infancy, is now launching as The Matchup, with the best sports content from local media outlets all over the U.S., covering professional and college sports with depth and hometown insight. The LMC will run the project, with support from the Google News Initiative.”
Besides, a future update will bring a dedicated dashboard to The Matchup. Here users will be able to track a specific team, league, contest, and even their players. Users will be required to have a subscription of at least one of the participating local media outlets in the sports event. The subscription revenue generated by this new sports hub will be shared among participating outlets. Moreover, any profits made off the sponsorships will be equally shared as well.
The Matchup is a really great initiative from Google to help the local media. Users will have access to all the high-quality sports news related to their favorite local team, in a single place. Notably, it will be a part of existing sports pages on member sites. Furthermore, The Matchup will have its own website in early 2021. Here users will be able to read all the latest news about their favorite local teams.