iPhone owners get a free upgrade today with a brand new app for sports fans

APPLE has launched a brand new free app especially for sports enthusiasts.

The service provides fast real-time score updates and statistics for a number of games, including football and basketball.

New app available todayCredit: Apple

Keep track of real-time statistics of your favorite teams and matchesCredit: Apple

Premier League, Ligue 1 and NBA are among the major leagues available at launch.

And there are plans to add more sports in the future.

Users in the UK, US and Canada can download the new Apple Sports app from today (February 21).

The app allows you to navigate between scores and upcoming matches, as well as explore play-by-play information, team stats, lineup details and live betting.

Users can choose to disable the live betting option.

And there are no ads in the app either.

“We created Apple Sports to give sports fans what they want: an app that provides incredibly fast access to scores and stats,” said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Services.

“Apple Sports is available for free in the App Store and makes it easy for users to stay up to date with their favorite teams and leagues.”

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There's also a button that takes you to the relevant streaming app where the game will be shown live – you'll still need to be a subscriber to those platforms to actually watch them.

You can even favorite your teams so they appear at the top of the app when they play.

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Which sports can I follow on Apple Sports?

Starting today, users can follow the following sports competitions:

MLS
N.B.A
NCAA basketball (men's and women's)
NHL
Bundesliga
La Liga
League MX
League 1
Premier League
Series a

There are already plans to add MLB, NFL, NCAAF, NWSL and WNBA for upcoming seasons, as well as other sports in the future.

The app works on any iPhone model running iOS 17.2 or later.

Oliver Schusser, Apple's vice president of Apple Music, Apple TV+, Sports and Beats, added: “We are incredibly proud to introduce Apple Sports, a new free app from Apple built for sports fans.

“We're so excited to offer our customers an easy and fast way to access scores and stats so they can stay up to date on all their favorite teams and competitions.”

The app can now be downloaded via the App Store.

Search for your favorite teams and keep track of their gamesCredit: Apple

iPhone tricks to try today

Here are some of the best…

Type cursor – Press and hold the spacebar while typing to turn your keyboard into a trackpad, making it easier to move through words and sentences
Close all Safari tabs – To do this in one go, simply hold the overlapping squares in the bottom right corner and press Close All Tabs
Delete many photos quickly – Press and hold a photo and drag your finger diagonally in Photos to select many images at once. Then press Delete
Exchange currencies quickly – Swipe down from the top of your home screen (or swipe from left to right on an iPhone
Check if you need a battery upgrade – Batteries in smartphones deteriorate over time. Just go to Settings > Battery > Battery Status and view the maximum capacity. In general, a battery is considered worn out when its capacity is only 80%. If you are below, you can purchase a battery change from Apple
Move apps faster – Hold an app until it starts to wiggle, then tap (while still holding) other apps, which will stack them so you can move them around more easily