• by Wayne Friedman , January 22, 2013

For sports fans checking scores or video clips, mobile devices -- smartphones and tablets -- are ringing up even more business.

For the first nine months of 2012, Nielsen says 60% of smartphone and tablet owners check sports results at least once a day. More constant checkers -- users who seek the latest football, baseball, hockey, basketball or other sports information, at least three times a day, for example -- were at lower levels: 12% for smartphone owners and 10% for tablet owners.

Analyzing "preference,” users gave smartphone and laptops an equal 16% score. This finding comes from those users who had multiple connected devices. But more traditional media efforts -- for those new Internet-connected TV sets -- also did well, with a 12% preference; tablets had 9% and gaming consoles, 7%.

Earlier, Nielsen research showed that nearly one-third of tablet users age 25 to 64 check sports scores while watching games on TV.

The December 2012 report also says more than 40% of female smartphone owners use their smartphones at least once a day while watching TV. Men, one the other hand, use their smartphones much less -- 35% use their smartphones while watching TV.