How it works.

Hail Mary is a side chat. The game's on the TV. Your phone has a group thread with your crew — plus Ballbot, an AI guardian angel that translates the broadcast live.

The loop

Three things happen, in this order, every game night:

1 · Pregame

Open the app to see what's on. Pick the games you care about, RSVP your crew, and get a one-paragraph briefing on the storylines that matter — who's on a streak, who just came off injury, who's feuding with whom. So you walk in informed, not blindsided.

2 · Live

As the game plays, Ballbot drops short, plain-English takes in the chat. When something confusing happens, tap “wait, what?” and Ballbot recaps the last 30 seconds. Your crew chats normally around it — Ballbot is just one of the voices in the thread.

3 · Recap

A short editorial of the game gets saved to the chat the morning after, in your own thread, for you to share or come back to. Searchable forever by player, team, or vibe. It's a yearbook, in your pocket.

Why a side chat, not a feed

Most sports apps optimize for the game. We focus on the gathering — the couch, the snacks, the post-mortem texts at 1 a.m., the barbershop the next day. So we don't have a public timeline or strangers in your thread. No stats avalanche, no fantasy ledger, no betting line crawling across the screen. The TV has the game. Your phone has your people.

What Ballbot knows

Six leagues at launch: NBA, WNBA, NHL, NFL, MLB, and soccer (MLS, EPL). Ballbot watches the play-by-play, knows the league history, and explains what just happened the way a knowing friend would. Dry, observational, old enough to misremember. Never coaches.

For the full ground-up tour of sports lingo, see The Casual Fan's Glossary. For the brand story, see our story.