i.TV Spins Up ‘Spit’ App For Sports Nuts

“Spit is awesome!”

Mark that down. This might be the first time you’ll see the words “spit” and “awesome” together in the same sentence, when the word “not” is not also in there close by.

Yet, there it is on this Web page promoting a new mobile app from i.TV that lets pals go head-to-head during nationally televised sporting events.

Kidding aside, it actually looks like fun. I suppose it could keep you active and engaged particularly during games in which you don’t have a significant rooting interest.

Available on iOS, users tap in to try to correctly predict the outcome of plays and other events that occur during NFL, NBA, MLB and college sporting games and matches. For example, during a football game, it will ask questions such as “Will the next play be a run or a pass?” There’s a ten-second countdown to make your pick and it awards points on a variable scale. Before the game, the app asks fans to make predictions such as the winner and final score.

And a built-in chat feature lets you “trash talk” with your friends…maybe that’s where the notion of “Spit” comes in.

And the idea behind Spit does strike me with some feelings of nostalgia. I remember playing NTN Buzztime’s QB1, a game that shares some similarities with Spit, every now and then at a bar at the Tivoli in downtown Denver that let you throw your peanut shells on the floor.

And it’s apparently still around (QB1, that is; I think the bar I used to frequent there is something else these days)  and now uses a “Playmaker” app for iOS and Android, is also playable on a specialized Gaming Tablet.

Back in the day (Wow, I feel old just writing that) when I was playing QB1 we were required to play it with this wireless monstrosity. The only cell phone I had access back then was a car phone in my Dad’s Diesel-engined 1979 Oldmobile Supreme that looked something like this and relied on some gigantic piece of machinery that had to be installed in the trunk.

When I’d drive it (and, why yes, I'd hear "This IS your father's Oldmobile!" a lot, because the car was indeed my father's, and it was already a decade older than this ad), I would call friends for no reason, other than to start off the conversation by asking, “You aren’t going to believe this, but I’m talking to you from a car phone!Can you believe that?”  And phone calls were 50 cents a minute! Which was like... a lot, considering I was making $4.50 an hour at the time working the grill at McDonald’s.Good times!

And…where was I? Oh, yeah. Spit. Sounds like a lot of fun. I'll try it out this weekend. Still...weird name.