The International Association of Athletics Federations has teamed up with online telephone service Skype to launch a dedicated Skype bot called Spikes.
The bot – which has gone live ahead of the start of the IAAF World Championships in London on Friday – will provide updates such as videos and images from the event. The bot will also offer a ‘live view’ option that will bring the user live reports directly from the Olympic Stadium in London.
The bot was developed through a collaboration between the IAAF and Skype and will cover the championships’ athletes, disciplines and results over the 10 days of the competition.
The second-screen service has been designed to complement the action for television viewers at home, as well as those at the stadium.
“We are learning in real time what fans are interested in, to optimise the coverage of our sport to best feed fans’ appetites,” IAAF chief executive Oliver Gers said.