The NHL has hired multiple mobile developers as it continues refining its apps that have faced harsh criticism from fans following their re-release at the beginning of the 2023-24 season.
Position opportunities posted in recent months—and now closed—for experienced Android and iOS engineers referenced a “growing native app team.” With the new hires, the league will now be able to handle more platform management responsibilities in-house. While the previous NHL app held a 4.7-star rating (out of five) on Apple’s App Store, this season’s version has received an average score of 1.4 since its fall release, based on third-party accounting.
In October, fans complained on Reddit regularly enough that forum moderators decided to ban new posts on the topic. “They mangled this app,” former player and current commentator Colby Armstrong said on his podcast in November. “The NHL app is an embarrassment to the league,” agent Allan Walsh posted on X soon thereafter.
The league had an eight-year digital partner relationship with MLB Advanced Media/BAMTech/Disney Streaming Services that ended in 2023 after Disney acquired the formerly baseball-owned tech group. The NHL rebuilt its app from scratch ahead of last season, with technical support from MLSE Digital Labs (part of the umbrella organization that owns the Toronto Maple Leafs and Raptors, which declined to comment for this story) in a one-year deal to help stand up the new platform.
Fans, of course, were unlikely to follow each step in that sequence of corporate maneuvers, and even less likely to care much about them. All they saw was an app that wasn’t satisfying them.
“We strive to deliver fans a best-in-class experience across all digital platforms,” an NHL spokesperson said. “Fan feedback is a valuable part of our development process as we continuously build and refine our suite of NHL apps. We are looking forward to introducing new features and functionality that will provide even deeper insights and access into the game.”
The iOS app has already received 18 subsequent updates according to the publicly available changelog. Many bugs have been resolved, design changes have been made based on user feedback and certain features such as CarPlay support have been reinstituted. The league has also attempted to address specific frustrations by presenting pop-up messaging in the app that directs fans to additional content they might otherwise miss; in some cases, complaints have proven to stem from the use of out-of-date versions of the application.
Still, some distaste remains, with more work left to be done. “I was really frustrated throughout the whole season,” Lightning fan Paul Kraff said, though he did note recent improvements. “I think, performance-wise, it’s still a really terrible app.”
In part, the new offering has had to live up to standards set by its predecessor.
“The fact that they’ve actually, like, reduced the quality of product—it’s just wild to me,” said Cliff Wilks, a Capitals fan who also works as a software engineer for a nonprofit organization.
Before the 2015-16 season, the NHL announced a six-year, $1.2 billion deal with MLB Advanced Media that would see baseball’s tech arm play a large role in NHL Network operations as well as NHL.com, team sites and new digital products. MLBAM was already expanding beyond its native sport at that point, working on streaming operations for the PGA Tour, ESPN, WWE and even HBO.
“As the market leader, MLBAM is uniquely qualified to assist us in giving hockey fans a richer, more immersive experience with the game,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said when announcing the partnership.
MLBAM’s spinoff, BAMTech, was so solid, Disney acquired the business in a multi-step transaction concluding in 2022 at a final valuation of roughly $6 billion. Baseball had essentially minted 2.5 franchises’ worth of value by solving streaming problems for modern rightsholders. The NHL ultimately received $350 million for the 10% stake it had in BAMTech as a result of the 2015 tie-up.
A team within the newly constituted Disney Streaming Services continued supporting the NHL app until sometime last year. But post-acquisition, Disney has put more focus behind its own streaming ambitions.
As the relationship ended, the NHL looked for new solutions for several previously covered tasks, with the app being one of the most fan-facing components involved.
Now, the league is joining several peers who have also built up media and tech know-how internally. The remaining portion of MLBAM still handles baseball’s app. The NBA has long partnered with TNT Sports for its owned media offerings, though it has increasingly developed in-house capabilities and could move on further as part of its larger, ongoing rights negotiations.
The purposes of league apps have evolved over time too. What were once hubs for information have become entertainment plays, forcing leagues to keep up with some of the biggest companies in the world when it comes to introducing personalized offerings and distributing algorithmically recommended videos. Even Apple heard tough critiques when it unveiled its Sports app earlier this year.
MLB, the NBA and the NFL all manage direct-to-consumer subscription offerings—MLB.TV, NBA League Pass and NFL+—with deep ties to their respective apps. The lack of an analogue in hockey, while convenient for fans who already have ESPN+ (where out-of-market NHL games are now available) and for league executives looking to reach a broader audience, could limit outside interest in or resources available for developing the league’s remaining digital touchpoints. However, there are other ways of engaging fans as well. Both MLB and the NBA, for instance, have recently added interactive mini-games to their main mobile platforms.
Some hockey fans have said they’re now spending more time using a multi-sport app like theScore or ESPN. For his part, Wilks said he’s come to rely on a fan-run X account that posts lengthy goal replays, often faster than he’s seen them appear in the NHL app.
Kraff, on the other hand, has stuck with the league product, having been turned off by the clutter and other content pushed in alternative apps. He’s kept perspective, too.
“It’s by far one of the most inconsequential complaints you can have—so the app for a sport league I follow doesn’t work the way it used to,” he said. “I’ll bitch on Reddit about it. That’s where you got to bitch about that kind of thing. But it’s not like it’s had an impact on my life.”
Just don’t get him started on the introduction of sponsored betting odds.
