Use Alexa for March Madness Coverage and Updates

Alexa Can Keep You Up to Date with the NCAA Basketball Games

Listen to Live, Streamed Coverage,
or Check the Scores and the Schedule,
Using Alexa and an Amazon Echo

March is here! And in the United States, that means March Madness and the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  Did you know you can use Alexa to keep you up to date on everything tournament related?

Today, we are going to look at two Alexa Skills that will help you keep up during March Madness. Both of these skills are free to enable.

The NCAA March Madness Skill

by NCAA Digital

Link: http://amzn.to/2DkWgRq

The NCAA March Madness Skill for Alexa delivers real-time tournament scores, schedule information and live radio feeds of the games.   NCAA March Madness will live stream all 67 games of the tournament.

After enabling this skill, you can ask Alexa for updates on current games, you can ask what games are coming up, you can ask for scores, and you can even ask for predictions on who will win. This skill will also tell you about past games and tournaments.

Example phrases include:

• “Alexa, ask March Madness what games are on now?”
• “Alexa, ask March Madness what games are available?”
• “Alexa, ask March Madness what games can I listen to on the radio?”
• “Alexa, ask March Madness what's the score?”
• “Alexa, ask March Madness for the score of the North Carolina game.”
• “Alexa, ask March Madness to play the Duke versus Kentucky game.”
• “Alexa, ask March Madness what time the Kansas game starts?”

To enable, either visit the Skills Store, or ask Alexa to "Enable the March Madness Skill." 

Westwood One Sports

by Westwood One 

Link: http://amzn.to/2FN5s6n

Amazon and Westwood have partnered to create a live-streaming Sports Skill.  And starting this year, Westwood One has integrated March Madness into the skill.  You can use this skill to listen to live, streaming broadcasts of tournament games, starting on March 13, 2018.  You can also listen to highlights of the games or a schedule of upcoming games.

The skill description reads "America’s play-by-play audio leader. Home of the NFL, NHL, Olympic Games, March Madness, the Masters, NCAA football and more."

To enable, say "Alexa, enable Westwood One Sports Skill" or visit the Alexa Skills Store.   Once you've enabled the skill, you can say "Alexa, open westwood one sports“ to start listening.

Unfortunately, once this skill is invoked, it is almost impossible to get it to turn off. When I asked Alexa to "Stop," "Be quiet," or "Shut up," she would respond that Westwood One could help me with that. She did NOT respond to "Stop Westwood One," or "Turn off Westwood One."  Even disabling the skill did not stop the stream.

In desperation, I asked Alexa to "Play Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." The sports stream stopped, and the music started playing.  Next, I asked Alexa to "Be quiet," and she was quiet. No more sports stream.

So if you cannot get this skill's stream to stop, try asking Alexa to play music. She will stop the Sports stream and start playing your song. Then, you can ask Alexa to stop, and she will be quiet.

Live Stream coverage is equivalent to listening to the game on the radio.

Summary

Alexa can keep you updated on everything March Madness related, if you enable a couple of skills.  The NCAA March Madness Skill will live stream all 67 games, offer highlights, statistics, schedules, recaps, scores, and other NCAA Tournament updates.   The Westwood One Sports Skill will also live stream the games and offer highlights. This skill offers the equivalent to hearing a game broadcast on the radio.  Either (or both) skills can be activated and invoked with a simple voice prompt. Either skill provides users with an excellent way to keep up with March Madness using Alexa.

Are you a Basketball Fan? Will you be paying attention to the tournament?  Do you think you may use Alexa to help keep you up to date?  Do you plan to use Alexa to live stream any games? Were you aware of these two skills? Have you used them in the past?  Let us know in the comments section. And as always, thanks for reading.