[neilkod]

CBSSports.com http://developer.cbssports.com/ launched a similar product a few months back - it seems to be going well and offers more data than ESPN does, including fantasy data. My initial reaction is that ESPN hastily cooked this up as a response to what CBS did.

Disclaimer, I work for CBS Interactive, the parent company of CBS Sports.

[xrd]

The TOS is horrible.

"Your Application must be designed to permit CBSi to comply with it's Privacy Policy, which may be updated by CBSi from time to time without notice to you. "

Pretty much everything in the TOS is some variant of "you must comply with this" and "we are not responsible for notifying you when we change it." This seems like a raw deal to me.

Updating for bugs is hard enough. But, this API forces developers to comply with UI guidelines (which are impossible to even write tests for) without anything back.

The API even requires that all financial transactions go through CBSi. Wow.

[xrd]

Apple and other app stores have gotten a lot of shit for changing requirements of their app stores, and rightly so. But, they started with compelling and clear offerings of the opportunity. The TOS of this API look so terrible up front I would not consider using it as a small developer. If your bosses at CSBi want to attract these types of people, I would recommend coming up with a tiered approach. ESPN does this better in this case.

[sujal]

I used to work for ESPN Digital and gave feedback on the early revs of this API.

I can tell you that this wasn't a hasty response from ESPN - we've been fighting for this in some shape or form for years now internally. Chris and his boss deserve a lot of credit for making space internally to make this happen.

There's a lot more behind this than meets the eye. Internally, these APIs essentially power all of ESPN's mobile alerts, fantasy products, etc. That's not a response to CBS.

Give these guys time. It takes longer to get a big company to move, especially when the potential market opportunity seems like a rounding error on the cable TV profits (at least to said TV execs). You've got a good person on the inside trying to open up more data. Don't give up on them, give them feedback - they're listening.

Sujal

[angry-hacker]

What/where is the pricing? Can't find it.

[aderaynal]

CBS takes a 30% cut on all app sales

[angry-hacker]

Mh, never mind. Right now they only support baseball, and football is not even on the list. (soccer for americans)

[aderaynal]

I'm sure they will add american football this summer. and I haven't heard of fantasy soccer on cbs sports.

[ulvund]

How far back does your score data go?