NBA
Meta is expanding its partnership with the NBA and WNBA to offer more than 50 live VR games on Meta Quest, the company announced on Monday. Meta Quest is the…
The Warriors’ Draymond Green talks podcasts, social media and the elephant in the room
The Warriors’ Draymond Green took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt today where he discussed his podcast, social media… and yes, the Jordan Poole punch. Green has spent the last several…
WhatsApp’s first original film to air on Prime Video and YouTube, NBA player Giannis Antetokounmpo stars
Meta-owned messaging app WhatsApp is stepping into the film business. Earlier this week, WhatsApp announced its first original short film “Naija Odyssey,” which tells the story of NBA player Giannis…
Welcome to Chain Reaction, where we unpack and explain the latest in crypto news, drama and trends, breaking things down block by block for the…
French startup Sorare originally launched a fantasy football (soccer) game. This year, the company is expanding to new sports. After partnering with Major League Baseball earlier this year, the company…
Welcome back to Chain Reaction, where we unpack and explain the latest in crypto news, drama and trends, breaking things down block by block for…
There’s no denying it — when it comes to e-commerce, Marc Lore delivers. The serial entrepreneur sold Quidsi, the parent company of Diapers.com, Soap.com and others, to Amazon in 2011…
Draftea, which calls itself the first daily fantasy sports company in Spanish-speaking Latin America, is taking fantasy football (not fútbol) to the region in a new partnership with the National…
Ticketmaster will now let event organizers issue NFTs (non-fungible tokens) tied to tickets on Flow, a blockchain operated by a16z-backed Dapper Labs. The Live Nation subsidiary said that event organizers…
Digital avatar startup Genies, known its for high-profile partnerships with celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Migos and Cardi B, has just released its long-anticipated NFT storefront, “The Warehouse.” Genies last…
Incredible Health, a U.S.-based job-matching platform which made nurses its first focus, has closed an $80 million Series B funding round and announced hitting a $1.65 billion unicorn valuation, billing…
This Week in Apps: Period tracking app privacy, Snapchat’s paid subscription, calls for TikTok ban
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues…
Pokémon GO developer Niantic is running into trouble as it builds “the real-world metaverse.” Like so many other tech companies facing turbulent economic times, the company decided to let go…
The past several months haven’t been entirely kind to the NFT market — while transaction volume hasn’t stuttered too significantly, the dollar amount invested in the space has been in…
Sinclair to launch $20/month direct-to-consumer streaming service Bally Sports+ on June 23
Sinclair Broadcast Group’s long-anticipated direct-to-consumer regional sports streaming app will have a soft launch this Thursday, June 23, 2022. While this isn’t a full rollout, Bally Sports+ will initially be…
Gopuff, the instant delivery upstart, taps ex-Disney head Bob Iger as its newest investor and advisor
Gopuff, the instant delivery giant valued at $15 billion, made a name for itself courting consumers wanting groceries and other essentials with an app that lets them order and get…
A much-anticipated market downturn may finally be here, and investors have been preparing for it by diversifying their portfolios away from the traditional stock and bond holdings, and into alternative…
While (former) startups like Lemonade came along to attack the tired world of insurance, the travel insurance market is now coming in for the same treatment from the likes of…
The web3 world is continuing to discover that it’s a lot harder to build a developer ecosystem than it is to build a platform. The Flow blockchain launched by NBA…
Google teams up with the NBA to host a ‘virtual’ Pixel Arena inside the NBA App
Google and NBA have launched the Pixel Arena, a virtual space tied to the 2022 NBA Playoffs, inside the NBA mobile app. The Google and NBA Pixel Area aims to…
Only in the current market can one wonder how a celebrity avatar startup that sells NFT accessories took so long to hit a unicorn valuation. Genies, an LA-based digital avatar…
Spotify brings live audio shows to its main app, rebrands companion app Greenroom as ‘Spotify Live’
As an earlier report had suggested, Spotify today announced it will integrate the live audio capabilities from its companion app, Spotify Greenroom, within the main Spotify streaming app. Greenroom will…
Lucky is bringing brands, retailers together with its take on product merchandising
Lucky’s plug-and-play API gives e-commerce brands visibility of its products on retailer store shelves to offer local fulfillment options.
Apple’s approach to NFT apps is still something of a gray area. The company permitted NFT marketplace OpenSea to launch an app, but only for browsing NFTs — not for…
Streaming deals ramp up for sports as MLB Opening Day and Masters Tournament begin
In light of all the recent complex streaming sports licensing deals, it becomes more evident each day that streaming platforms are beginning to realize the cash grab of having live sporting…
Russia’s App Store lost nearly 7K apps since its invasion of Ukraine, but some Big Tech apps remain
The Russian App Store has lost 6,982 mobile apps since the start of the Ukraine invasion, as numerous companies have now pulled their apps and games from Apple’s iPhone and…
TikTok has already achieved massive influence in today’s music industry, sending songs that find popularity on the app to the top of the Billboard charts. Now the company is launching…
Tom Brady’s buzzy celebrity NFT startup Autograph banks $170M from Silicon Valley’s top crypto investors
Autograph, an NFT agency co-founded by athlete Tom Brady with a particularly deep bench of star power, has banked new funding from crypto investors who hope the platform can bring…
Masters, an app for training with celeb athletes, closes a $2.7M seed funding round
It’s now 2022 and there are many, many apps out there that allow you to do cardio or build muscle by taking classes inside smartphone apps. We are all familiar…
As they near the end of a blockbuster year for NFTs that saw more than $10 billion in transaction volume, today’s NFT project developers are finding themselves facing a dilemma…