X Expands Gametime Sports Hub to MLB, Plans Year-Round Pro Sports Destination

First announced in August, NFL Gametime is a single hub for tracking live scores, getting play-by-play updates, tuning into game feeds and more. The feature was not meant to be useful only to X users who gather on the platform to discuss live sporting events, but to woo brands and advertisers looking to reach passionate sports fans. X said at Advertising Week New York that Gametime will become a year-round destination spanning "all professional sports." The full expansion is not live as of today, however.

Instead, X announced its second league partnership, with MLB. Arriving this month, the new MLB experience will let baseball fans follow and engage in postseason discussions. It will organize scores and stats, team and league content, news, creator content and real-time discussions. X said content from other leagues will be added soon, including the NBA.

The expansion comes as X continues efforts to win back advertisers, in this case by using live sports and their highly engaged fans to draw brands back to the platform. "In just six weeks, Gametime has evolved from a football-focused product into a scalable destination for sports, attracting strong demand across major advertisers from payments to consumer goods looking to engage highly attentive fans from the pregame conversation through the biggest moments of the game," said Monique Pintarelli, SpaceXAI's head of global advertising, in an announcement.

The new feature's introduction follows X owner Elon Musk's July settlement in a multiyear legal battle with the advertising trade group the World Federation of Advertisers, which X had sued for an alleged "illegal boycott" of the platform. Some advertisers had become uncomfortable with the platform's lax moderation standards under Musk, as well as with Musk's outsized position on the social media site, where he often posted controversial views and politics. Musk believed the WFA's guidelines had steered brands and ad agencies away from X, suggesting it was a place where their ads could appear next to harmful online content.

X's announcement of the settlement in July said the move "resets the relationship between the two organizations." The company also committed to both freedom of speech and brand-safety innovations.

Editor's Summary

X is expanding its Gametime sports hub beyond the NFL through a new MLB partnership launching this month, with plans to add other leagues including the NBA. The move is part of X's effort to attract advertisers by turning live sports into a year-round destination. It follows X's July settlement with the World Federation of Advertisers and its stated commitments to free speech and brand safety.