If you’re like me and you don’t really follow sports, you may not know about the Sports section for Facebook. But, did you know that the section also caters to esports? Read on to learn how to use this Facebook feature.
To be honest, I don’t know how long Facebook Sports has been around. Following that, I don’t know how long its had esports in it either. This feature isn’t promoted very much anywhere. In fact, when I went searching online for how to use it, I couldn’t find any handy articles. So, this one’s just for you ❤
How do I access ‘Facebook Sports’?
There are a few ways to access this feature. The important thing to remember is that you won’t find links to this section in the left sidebar. Thanks for that Facebook.
If you already follow a team, their scores might show up on your right sidebar in the main News Feed. If you don’t, the easiest way is to head to one of the following:
Clicking on any of the links will bring you to the main hub that looks like so:
You can scroll through the feed to find the most recent posts about Dota 2, for example. As far as I can see, the posts or livestreams that are featured are mainly from esports organisers like ESL, esports teams and anyone that’s marked their livestreams as playing a specific game.
Personally, I think it makes no sense to have non-esports content creator posts to be featured on Facebook Sports. I’d expect the feed to have only esports content. This is what the Dota 2 Feed looks like at the time of writing this piece:
How do I access Facebook Sports on mobile?
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a dedicated button. You’d have to replicate my suggestion in the previous section in your mobile web browser.
I’ve attempted to access the section via the Facebook app to no avail ????
How to find match results in search results
This one is a fun fact: If you search for a team like OpTic and they have a current match, the live score will show in the search results:
How to access match info and stats
If you click on a specific match, you’ll find that it has its own stats page. As you can see from the screenshot below, the Matchup tab shows which teams are playing, the event details, ‘Game Picks’ and relevant videos.
I was pleasently surpriesd to find how detailed the stats section was for the match page:
How to share a match to your Facebook or Messenger
When you click on a specific match, you’ll get a summary of the results and any other relevant stats. If you have friends who might be interested in seeing the same info, you can share a match by clicking on the ‘Share’ button. (Ignore the weird football pitch photo, for now, it’s probably just a default image)
In the same way you’d share any other post, you get the following prompt when sharing a match:
How to follow specific teams
This one is pretty easy. Basically, if you’re following a team’s Facebook page already, you’ll be following them on Facebook Sports.
However, if you’re keen on following several teams, you can click on the gear icon in the ‘My Teams’ column to bring up this prompt:
As you can see, the only games listed so far are CS:GO and DotA 2:
Why does Facebook care about listing esports in its Sports section?
As we’ve previously reported, Facebook is one of the livestream partners for ESL. If Facebook is going to be a serious place for esports, they should take it as seriously as traditional sports. Including esports in the Sports section is a good step in this direction.
Of course, I think Facebook Sports has plenty of potential. Unfortunately, it’s being underutilised with how annoying it can be to access. But, if they make it a feature on the sidebar or elsewhere on the site, it would be a good way to raise awareness of esports to an audience that might not usually pay attention to it. It would be easier for them to interact with Facebook’s interface as opposed to more specialist esports websites for a start.
