Sporting Wireless

If you weren't able to watch Tiger Woods win the Masters this year or couldn't fly to Boston last month to watch the marathon, don't despair. Your wireless device can keep you updated on sporting events around the world.

As part of its digital coverage of the Masters (www.masters.org) this year, IBM (www.ibm.com) rolled out two wireless initiatives: Mobile Masters Delivery and Mobile Masters on Demand. The first was an SMS program that allowed golf fans to register five players and get end-of-round scores for each of them. The second, via WAP, delivered groupings and tee times for all players, a mini leader board and breaking news.

As a result, six seconds after Tiger Woods holed out on 18, Corey Shelton, IBM senior producer, received Wood's round score on his cellular phone.

At the Boston Marathon in April (www.baa.org), Nextel offered two wireless programs (www.nextel.com). Using technology that tracks runners' progress through computer chips attached to their shoes, Nextel allowed marathon fans to check on their favorite runners through their wireless phones. As the runners passed each of 11 checkpoints, they ran over an electronic pad on the road. As their shoes touched the pad, the chip registered the time and location and sent information to those who signed up for the service.

“If a runner finishes, as soon as her shoes touch the mat at the finish line, (the chip) will take that information and send it to the addresses she designated,” said John Redman, Nextel senior communications manager, New England area.

The second service allowed runners to choose two locations to receive their race information, such as a Web site or Web-enabled phone. These messages were sent as the runner crossed four points on the course, including the halfway point and finish line.

Redman said about 2,500 runners signed up for the messaging service, or 22% of the field. Nextel sent out more than 23,000 e-mail messages during the event, not bad for the first year, Redman said.

If you're looking to keep up with the Wimbledon tennis tournament this summer, don't worry if you can't attend or watch it in your living room. Just log on to wap.wimbledon.org and get instant updates on your phone.

Tracking sports is one thing, but what about interactively betting on sports through wireless technology? That's what Flutter.com and Covigo (www.flutter.com or wap.flutter.com) are aiming for (www.covigo.com).

Flutter.com, a popular online betting service in the United Kingdom, is working with Covigo to create software that will allow people to place bets on soccer and cricket matches via their wireless devices.

“They are not able to place the bet yet because the security in a wireless device is not uniform,” said Krishna Vedati, Covigo CTO & co-founder.

Right now, sports fans can log on and look at different bets they've placed and get alerts when they win. The companies are aiming for wireless betting in the future.