Korean Baseball Opening D-2... LG Uplus Revamps 'U+ Pro Baseball'

Baseball Platform Service Revamp
Enhancing Fun, Social Features, and Data Analytics

[Asia Economy Reporter Minyoung Cha] LG Uplus announced on the 1st that it will revamp its baseball service platform ‘U+Pro Baseball’ and start broadcasting the 2021 KBO League, which opens on the 3rd.

U+Pro Baseball is a baseball platform service where users can check KBO live broadcasts, each team’s game schedules, key player information, and popular highlights at a glance through the mobile app and IPTV service ‘U+tv.’ It has provided ▲simultaneous live viewing of 5 KBO games ▲position-specific videos ▲home close-up videos ▲stadium zoom-in (8K) ▲replay of key scenes, among other features.

Starting from this league, ▲real-time strike zone ▲Yamae commentary ▲friend chat ▲friend invitation features will be added. The real-time strike zone service displays the strike zone directly on the live broadcast screen and shows data on the pitches thrown at a glance. Customers watching games at Jamsil Stadium can immediately and accurately check information such as pitch type, speed, and spin rate in a clear and concise manner.

The ‘broadcast by baseball maniacs,’ abbreviated as ‘Yamae commentary,’ service will also be introduced. Comedians who are baseball fanatics will appear and provide commentary using familiar words and easy terms. Comedians No Woojin and Lee Dongyun are expected to launch Yamae commentary content as early as this month.

The ‘friend chat’ feature, which allows users to watch live broadcasts while chatting with desired people in real time, is also noteworthy. It is a kind of ‘private chat room’ where invited acquaintances can watch baseball together and chat. It offers the fun of watching together even when friends or family are apart. Previously, only chats visible to all U+Pro Baseball users were available, mostly consisting of brief messages supporting preferred teams.

The ‘friend invitation’ feature, which allows easy invitation of acquaintances to U+Pro Baseball, is also worth noting. It enables simple invitations through various channels such as mobile messengers, social network services (SNS), text messages, and links. When invited friends join, users accumulate personal points, which can be used to enter desired prize draws. The higher the total points of each customer, the better the prizes.

U+Pro Baseball will broadcast the 2021 KBO League games live starting from the 3rd. The opening day schedule begins with LG-NC (Changwon), Hanwha-KT (Suwon), KIA-Doosan (Jamsil), Lotte-SSG (Munhak), and Samsung-Kiwoom (Gocheok).

Jusik Eom, Head of Baseball Service at LG Uplus, said, “Considering the difficulty of visiting stadiums due to social distancing, we have strengthened social and fun features that allow users to enjoy games online with acquaintances and introduced data services that enable accurate viewing as if attending in person. We hope that the various differentiated functions provided by U+Pro Baseball will bring more vividness to customers’ ‘cheering from home.’”

Meanwhile, LG Uplus has been streaming the KBO League exhibition games held over 11 days from the 20th to the 30th of last month in real time through ‘U+Pro Baseball.’ Customers were able to watch the exhibition games held without spectators more vividly via mobile and TV.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.