A Red Sox fan may never marry a Yankees fan again. Unless of course, conflict really is the best spark to a potential relationship.
All that and more will be determined by a new app released Thursday called "Free Agent" which attempts to connect romance and sports fanaticism, according to Forbes.
"Free Agent" was the idea of former "Sportscenter" anchor and NFL Network host Rich Eisen, who met his wife when they both worked for ESPN, Forbes reported.
"There are hundreds of millions of people on dating apps every day, but apparently no such apps cater solely to sports fans," Eisen said. "My wife and I met in the newsroom of ESPN (which technically makes our children ESPN babies) so it hit me: without sports I may never have met my wife. I wanted to create an app that would provide the same type of meeting place, whether it's mobile, in the stadium or at a college campus."
Eisen may be right about the strong market for a sports dating app, but if he thinks his is the only service linking sports and love, he's more wrong than a Duke-UNC couple. A quick Google search brings one to the dating site, "Must Love Sports", which aims to help online daters reach their "goals".
To raise publicity, Eisen formed a somewhat unlikely partnership with Nike Football. The two entities co-own the app.
"We pitched a handful of sports-related businesses about joining our app," Eisen said. "[Nike] thought it was a great idea and were eager to participate in the launch. It was that simple. They, if you will, just did it."
Eisen will be the virtual face of "Free Agent". He'll promote it, monitor its growth, and ensure it stays true to its mission, according to Forbes. He will also occasionally engage users in chats.
Eisen's favorite feature of "Free Agent" is "Second Screen" where online daters can chat next to live game feeds.
"Free Agent" is free to download and use, Forbes reported. For those really serious, an upgrade is available for purchase giving users more profiles to view and allowing them to track profile hits.
