Bangalore: Sport loving software developers (“Nerds who build freaking awesome sports stuff,” according to the website) now have a reason to rejoice as ESPN has launched its Developer Center, providing public with APIs which allows access to a wide array of sports data and editorial content.

“Connected devices are only going to proliferate in every aspect of life, so it’s important that we can reach fans no matter the product or place,” said Jason Guenther, ESPN’s vice president of digital media technology. The website currently displays a foursquare app which is developed in partnership with ESPN. The app allows fans to check in at the stadium during games, and get key information about the teams and players involved. “The play for us is making sure we have our content in all the different digital ecosystems,” continued Guenther.

But as reported in VentureBeat, initial reviews from the coder community were negative, calling out the restrictions and high costs. A developer needs to have a premium account and should follow strict terms and conditions which say: “All Apps must include an approved ESPN trademark, logo or other intellectual property (each, an “ESPN Mark”). No advertising or sponsorship of any kind may appear on or be associated with any App (unless included in the Content made available by ESPN). All Apps must be offered free of charge to download or otherwise access and may not contain any in-App purchase features.”

“They’ve made it impossible to monetize my effort, correct? I don’t see how this will go anywhere if that is the case. It seems like they just want developers to build extra ESPN apps for them, and then give them all away for free,” writes a coder in VB.