What To Watch: N.Y. Times Reviews Thuuz's New Sports Service

Thuuz alerts help users determine which sporting events to watch

The N.Y. TIMES' Mike Tanier reviewed California-based tech company Thuuz's new service, which "uses computer algorithms to analyze play-by-play statistics, rates the quality of games on a 100-point scale, then sends e-mail or text messages to users." Tanier, who signed up for the service just before the start of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, noted Thuuz's calculations "produce some strange results." For example, the Super Bowl earned an excitement score of 83, a point less than Kent State's 4-point NIT win over Fairfield. Tanier: "You would expect some default hierarchy to rank Super Bowls and Final Four games above regular-season NBA games and cricket matches." Thuuz's e-mail alerts "classify games as either good or great." The e-mail "header 'Good Game' damns with faint praise, promising the most meager of thrills." Thuuz designers are "still working on the predictive element of their programs." The "Great Game" alerts "arrive like belated invitations to a party." The alert "often arrives after 10 minutes of Twitter messages along the lines of 'Butler could upset Pitt!'" Tanier wrote Thuuz's "most fascinating feature is the color-coded timeline it uses to illustrate each game's excitement level." The graph "displays intense moments in fiery red; routine stretches in dull yellow; and so on" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/26).