Already one of the most tech-savvy sports leagues, Major League Baseball is set to install thousands of iBeacons in ballparks around the country and will deck out about 20 parks – including stadiums in Boston, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and San Francisco –with about 100 iBeacons each by Opening Day. iBeacons can be found in every Apple Store in the U.S., and the NFL recently installed iBeacons at MetLife Stadium and in Times Square for the Super Bowl to help users get to entry gates and to find nearby tourist attractions. The iBeacons are designed to work with MLB’s At The Ballpark app, and every team that gets iBeacon installed can decide what users see and do — things like getting concession info or learning about loyalty and rewards programs. Major League Baseball already offers fully digital ticketing through the At The Ballpark app, so iBeacons are a logical next step toward making the league even more digitally friendly. Now all we need to do is wait for Opening Day…
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with AI strategy, implementation and governance, as well as technology, media and marketing. Named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology, he is a bestselling author, covers tech and business for Fox 5’s Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN, and writes the popular daily business blog Think About This. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.