Crowd-sourced sports commentary: the choice is yours

For too long, sports fans have been given no choice at all when it comes to live commentary. We are accustomed to having unlimited choice in entertainment, however traditional sports commentary has become monotonous and boring.

In an age where I can listen to any song at any time, why should live sports commentary be so restrictive?

Fans demand choice, and as technology in sports proliferates, fans are being offered more and more control of their sporting experience. We can control camera angles. We can watch replays on demand. We can pause. We can watch sports on the go.

Add to this the technology being used to analyse the game – Hawkeye, snicko, super slow motion – and you quickly realise how enhanced our viewing experience has become. If you stop to think about how far we have come in such a short time, it’s mind-blowing.

But one fact still remains – you rarely have a choice when it comes to commentators. And I say rarely because we are all familiar with Roy and HG.

They are an alternative to the norm and, for a change, come with a heavy dose of humour. It’s no surprise how well they’re received given Australia’s love of Billy Birmingham’s 12th Man series – Aussies love a laugh and a good piss take. So why not take this humour and apply it to live sports?

And Roy and HG are certainly not an isolated case of alternative commentary. The BBC offered fans the opportunity to watch two of the 2010 FIFA World Cup games with an alternative commentary via the Red Button by BBC Radio 1 presenters Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave. It was comical, factually inaccurate, ridiculous, and overall, damn entertaining.

And it doesn’t just have to be a comedic approach. The guys over at Test Match Sofa offer an alternative audio cricket commentary service, covering every ball of the England international calendar. Mute your TV and enjoy something a bit different, but with just as much analysis, insight, and entertainment as you have come to expect via traditional broadcasts.

But these examples offer fans only one alternative – your choice is still highly limited. What if you yourself wanted to commentate? Or what if you wanted a multitude of different options – different languages, different tones and approaches to commentary?

What if there was a platform that enabled anyone to commentate and broadcast live to the world? For sports fans, an opportunity to experience a whole host of different options. And for some of us, the opportunity to express our views, and try our luck as a commentator?

YouCommentate offered such a service briefly, but sadly it was short lived and the site now appears down.

Was this because it was a bad idea, or because it was poorly executed? I’m not sure, but like any new idea, it’s not always the first player to market that wins – Facebook wasn’t the first social network, nor Google the first search engine.

And so I decided to launch an alternative called Combox Live via a Kickstarter campaign.

The site’s ultimate goal is to bring more choice to sports fans by revolutionising the live commentary experience. It’s actually an idea I have had for many years, but only recently has it become technically feasible within a web browser.

I remember while living in the UK watching an All Blacks versus Ireland rugby game, and the Irish commentators were so one-sided it was infuriating. So we muted the TV, and streamed Talk Sport New Zealand via a laptop and enjoyed their commentary as an alternative.

That got me thinking, what if there was a platform that aggregated all types of different commentary and allowed anyone to get involved?

Perhaps we are in need of something different, or perhaps this is a niche that will always bubble under the surface but never break into the mainstream. Either way, a small part of every sports fan fancies ourselves behind the mic – even if it were just for the afternoon and the enjoyment of our closest friends.