If you’re an AFL fan and have an Amazon Alexa, or Alexa-enabled device, then you can now add a new skill from Telstra. If you’re at home, chances are you’ll just fire up the TV and check, but if remember at this year’s CES, we seen a number of companies announce Alexa support in your car. While you’re mid-road trip and want to stay up to date, this is great functionality for sporting fans.
AFL have a long running relationship with the AFL and offer life, unmetered streaming of AFL matches free with customers. Extending that relationship, the new AFL Alexa Skill by Telstra allows you to get information about your favourite team, players or the game you love.
To launch the AFL skill, once enabled on the device, it is as simple as asking, “Alexa, ask AFL who the Hawks play next?” or “Alexa, ask AFL who’s on top of the ladder?”.
You can then ask Alexa a range of questions about your team and the AFL. For example, ask
“when are the Bombers and the Tigers playing next?”
and it will respond with specific details like..
“Bombers are playing Tigers at 7:25 pm on 2 June in round 11 at Docklands Stadium.”
The AFL skill is currently active with information about:
- 2018 fixtures
- The AFL Ladder
- Historical scores; and
- Latest news.
Some of the new functionality being developed also includes live stats like:
- Player rating,
- Goals,
- Disposals; and
- AFL Fantasy points.
The cool part about this is the fact that fans can be watching the game at home, and ask the Alexa skill,
“How many goals has Buddy Franklin kicked?”
“How many disposals has Dustin Martin had?”
Alexa devices will be able to answer these questions in real time. A really nice touch is the inclusion of common nicknames for players so fans can ask questions like:
“How many tackles has Dusty had?”
“How many kicks has Hodgey had?”
“How many Fantasy points does Nic Nat have this round?”
Fans can also stay up-to-date on their favorite club’s news by enabling one of the Flash Briefing Skills. Each AFL club has a skill, and once enabled, Alexa will play updated news headlines when you ask,
“Alexa, what’s my Flash Briefing” or “Alexa, what’s in the news?”
But it doesn’t stop there. What’s really exciting is that along with Alexa’s answer, the device can now offer follow up questions like,
“do you want to know the score when these teams last played?”
This two-way conversation with AFL fans opens up some amazing opportunities and truly puts us at the edge of how technology is evolving in the home with voice control here in Australia.
More information at Telstra Exchange.
