Sprint has partnered with Anheuser-Busch "to create tap handles that flash lights and display custom messages each time the Royals -- or another cities' home team -- score a run," according to Bobby Burch of the K.C. BUSINESS JOURNAL. Sprint worked with Mesh Systems "to create the interactive tap handles, which will be used for Bud Light and Budweiser beers." The programmable taps also "will integrate with cities' football teams." The handles "employ Sprint's wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) technology and Mesh Systems' cloud-based platform to display the messages after a team scores." A Sprint spokesperson said that the handles "already are at several Kansas City-area bars." Sprint said that it "expects more than 8,000 taps to be in place this fall" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 10/16). A-B Marketing Communications Manager Nick Kelly in an e-mail wrote that several of the taps "are already installed in the St. Louis region." He added the company has "hopes of growing the reach in the near future." In St. Louis, Lisa Brown notes the tech "was first tested in Denver" in '12 and later "at A-B's Bud Light Hotel during the Super Bowl in New Orleans" in February '13. A-B said that the tap handles "will ultimately be used during other sports, including basketball and motor sports" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 10/17).
