The National Basketball Association (NBA) hopes to score a slam dunk with a hi-tech application that will let fans watch live games on their mobile phones.

The NBA's app brings live games to mobile phones

NBA League Pass Mobile lets smartphone-equipped basketball fans watch up to 40 live games each week, with the application set-up to support the iPhone, iPod Touch and Android handsets.

BlackBerry support will be added by the end of 2009, the NBA promised.

PVR-style technology allows fans to pause or rewind up to 30 seconds of live action, while game statistics can also be called-up during live dribbling.

Fans can even watch games on-demand up to two days after they were originally broadcast, the NBA added.

Priced at $40 (£26/€24), the NBA League Pass Mobile application costs more than your average app. But it’s not the first of its kind.

Watch and rewind live games

Fans of Major League Baseball have been able to watch live games through a dedicated iPhone application since June, for example.

The NBA application is currently only available in North America, with carriers AT&T and T-Mobile USA already signed up to play stream ball. Verizon will bring the service to Android fans early next month. ®