GameChanger App Expanding Video Feature With Clip-Making Option

Already a popular choice for softball fans, the scorekeeping app GameChanger took a step toward live sport-specific video in October 2020. And now they’ve stepped up the feature again, introducing the ability to create shareable highlight clips.

“A lot of leagues are putting limits on how many family members and fans can be at the game, so we responded in October by launching livestreaming,” says Roxanne O’Driscoll, GameChanger senior product manager. “We are trying to rapidly crank out improvements to the experience for the viewer at home.”

The GameChanger app, already the sport’s most used scorekeeping app with 21 million games scored and over 550,000 teams using the app in the United States, gave teams a unique digital scoring model. It goes beyond stats, allowing people not at the game to have a feel like they are at the game as they can digitally see people move around the field and even have the updates announced akin to a radio broadcast.

“It is so much further beyond stats,” O’Driscoll says. By adding livestreaming in October, GameChanger offered a sport-specific way to view the game, including the score, the inning and other essentials that other streaming options, such as Facebook Live, couldn’t offer.

“The video adoption has been awesome,” O’Driscoll says. “We have had overwhelmingly positive feedback.” The beta version of the livestream allows GameChanger, a company that launched in 2010 and was acquired by Dick’s Sporting Goods in 2016, to push improvements as they build them. With the high season for softball coming, O’Driscoll says she’s excited to see the adoption rate grow and for the clip-making feature, which was released in early February on Android and iOS, to get explored.

The ability to make clips was born out of conversations with parents and coaches who were spending time and effort creating highlights for players. “It was mind-blowing to hear how much effort these parents were putting in to create clips,” O’Driscoll says. Now those watching at home can create clips in the app as they happen and share them, if they choose.

“There are a ton of parents who can’t be on site to record their kid's at-bat, but can grab those clips easily,” O’Driscoll says. “Parents at home can be creating those clips and share them out on social media, or really do whatever they want with them. They can share them for recruiting or share them with family and friends.”

Anyone watching the stream via GameChanger has their own experience and each clip created is personal to that person. No other user will see that a clip has been made.

With such a rapid adoption of new features for GameChanger, largely due to the pandemic, O’Driscoll says to expect continued enhancements. “We are hungry to get to our roadmap and get more things out,” she says. “We are really excited.”

Tim Newcomb covers gear and business for Softball America. Follow him on Twitter at @tdnewcomb.

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