In this week’s social media roundup, asthma we take a look at Real Madrid’s collaboration with Snapchat and Twitter’s trial of new poll features. We also dive into Google+’s re-branding efforts and Tumblr’s introduction of a GIF-maker.

Real Madrid become the first sports team to have a Snapchat ‘Official Story’

Last week, Real Madrid achieved a social media first by becoming the first sports club to have an ‘Official Story’ on Snapchat. Official Stories provide a way to gather together a string of videos or pictures from an event into one ‘story’ for fans to then watch back and feel part of the action. 

Real Madrid’s Snapchat story was launched for the El Clasico match up between Real Madrid and Barcelona on Saturday – a game expected to draw a global audience of hundreds of millions of people across platforms ranging from TV, Twitter and Snapchat.

Snapchat and Real Madrid were looking to capture as much of the hype and atmosphere as possible from La Liga’s fiercest rivalry by involving fans at the game. The partnership was expected to encourage fans to send in their own photos and videos knowing they had a chance to feature in the ‘Official Story’, which would be broadcast to Snapchat’s user base of over 100 million.

Rafael de los Santos, Real Madrid’s Head of Digital, explained his high hopes for the partnership, saying:

“We are very keen on taking advantage of every single channel out there to communicate with our fans and capture the next generation of fan. We have 450 million fans around the world. Our goal is to reach every single one of them”.

There are likely to be a host of sports clubs looking to forge similar partnerships with Snapchat in the hope of engaging their current fan base. A partnership like this also provides an opportunity for a club to reach out to a wider audience who may not, at present, be interested in them.

Today, the French Ligue 1 club, Marseille, announced their partnership with Snapchat. This deal differs from Real Madrid’s venture as users can access exclusive video and photo content from the club. This content includes behind the scenes footage from training, videos from matches and travel as well as the curating of fan submissions from matches.

These collaborations top off a successful year for Snapchat, which has gained a reputation as the ‘fastest growing social network’ with growth of 57% in 2014. It is also an indication of the path Snapchat might be looking to go down in 2016 and the next platform sports clubs will focus on to increase their engagement with fans.

Twitter trials new poll features

Our first roundup of the month looked into the launch of Twitter’s new poll feature that enables users to create polls with two answer options.

Last week, TechCrunch reported sightings of the platform’s attempt to trial features to improve their polls, for example, enabling four answer options and extending the run-time of polls to a week instead of the current time limit of 24 hours.

We feel that extending the amount of time a poll is live will not make much difference to Twitter users with small audiences, as tweets are said to be ‘live’ for only 24 minutes. This means the poll is unlikely to be seen an hour after it was posted, let alone 24 hours or even a week!

Having said that, this feature will not be a negative addition as poll creators can check the status of their polls at any time and voters can see the poll’s score as soon as they have selected their answer.

For highly influential celebrities, sports stars or popular brands with huge reach, their tweets often get retweeted and discussed for hours after being posted, so a longer poll time could result in a far greater engagement levels.

Additionally, 54% of Twitter users do not log onto the platform every day meaning prolonging the life of polls might increase the opportunity for less frequent users of Twitter to get involved and increase their engagement with the platform.

As for increasing poll answer options, we believe this could be especially beneficial for brands. Instead of asking questions requiring vague, ‘black or white’ answers, this will enable poll creators to get a better understanding of how their audience feels towards the question posed.

However, as the average Twitter user is only online for about 13 minutes, it is important for poll creators to provide brief answers and not always use the four options unless necessary.

**UPDATE** (24th November)

Overnight Twitter rolled out one of these changes to all users. Every Twitter account should now have the option of creating polls with 4 answer options. Polls are still only live for 24 hours. It will be interesting to see if this changes over the next few days or whether Twitter decides it is not worth extending the run time of polls.

World Rugby has launched the tender process for the appointment of host broadcast services for RugbyWorld Cup 2019 in Japan.

The international federation will, anesthetist for the first time, impotent be taking control of the host broadcast output for its showcase event, and working with a broadcast partner to deliver the world feed.

A shortlist of companies will be selected from the expression of interest process to move forward to a full host broadcaster tender that will be independently managed and run on behalf of World Rugby by Tony Sinclair .

A decision on the host broadcaster for Rugby World Cup 2019 will be made in March 2016 following detailed analysis.

By Christian Radnedge

The organising committee of the Baku 2015 European Games have announced that all 48, look 000 tickets for next week’s closing ceremony have been sold and that they are not worried about the empty seats seen so far at the Games.

Baku 2015 insisted that 168 sport sessions of a total of 281 across the 20 sports were sold out. However, buy swathes of empty seats were seen at venues such as Crystal Hall which is hosting volleyball.

Chief operating officer of the Games Simon Clegg said the problem of empty seats was “obviously an issue with tickets being given to sponsors”.

“This is a challenge that any international event has on day one and two of competition as the system starts to bed down,” he said. “I recognize that some sports are more popular and some less in Azerbaijan.”

Nevertheless, the government is confident there will be no empty seats at the closing ceremony at the Olympic Stadium on June 28.

Speaking about the demand for tickets to Baku 2015, Minister of Youth and Sport and Chief Executive Officer for Baku 2015, Mr Azad Rahimov, said: “The response to the Games has been magnificent. The Opening Ceremony has inspired the nation and as a result we are seeing a huge demand for tickets from people who want to be part of Azerbaijan’s largest ever sporting event.

“I’m also extremely proud of our Azerbaijani athletes, they have all done our nation proud. The reaction they have received from the crowd has been magnificent and their performances will help inspire young people across the country to take up sport.”

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It’s a pleasure to be given this opportunity by iSportconnect to speak to you, its readers, people who are part of the sports industry.

The current Turkish Airlines Euroleague season is proving once again to be full of passion, and we can’t wait to celebrate another Final Four, this coming May in Madrid, that will offer our fans an unforgettable experience.

What’s more, this is a special season, because it’s the 15th since we created Euroleague Basketball in June of the year 2000.

These 15 years have seen the enthusiasm of our clubs to manage their competition carry us through difficulties and constantly tackle new and bigger goals. The results fill us with pride and with hope.

Pride for the progress our competition has made in helping to grow the popularity of basketball.

That progress is reflected in the 52% more games our clubs offer their fans; also in 32 new or renovated arenas that have doubled the seating capacity in the Euroleague and allowed us to grow attendance by 250 percent to a total of 2.8 million spectators.

It’s reflected also in a growth in the television coverage of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague from 15 countries and territories in 2000 to 201 this season; and in a strong digital presence that boasts an accumulated audience of over 1.8 billion fans.

The product continues to be the same – elite basketball – but our clubs have clearly made great gains in its presentation and distribution.

As in all sports, the quality of the basketball product and its promotion are the basis for building sustainable business and growth.

During a time when the sports market has faced complex problems, our business has grown more than 350% in these 15 years, and our family of sponsors has diversified to  include such brands as Turkish Airlines, bwin, Adidas, Spalding, EFES Pilsener 2k and New Era, who permit our league to enjoy a stable and solid budget structure.

This has been the result of a risky bet made by the most important clubs in European basketball when they took control of their competition, built strong platforms for promotion and attracted sponsors ready to trust in Euroleague Basketball – all to bring this great sport to more fans.

If pausing to look back and analyze a path that was travelled is always beneficial, it should never lead to nostalgia and complacency.

We must always have our thoughtsfocused on the future, on how to improve and to keep growing even stronger.

And here is where I have the conviction that our expectation of a brilliant future for basketball is justified, that we are in the best position to make the next steps, to accelerate growth and to show that the best is yet to come.

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Jordi Bertomeu Orteu has been the CEO of Euroleague Basketball from July 2000, its Chairman since 2009 and its President since 2011.

Jordi Bertomeu earned a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Barcelona.

From its inception in March 1982 he developed tasks as Legal Advisor and Secretary General of the Spanish Basketball Clubs Association (ACB), in December 1994, he was appointed ACB Vice-president until July 2000, when he was named CEO of Euroleague Basketball.

Mr. Bertomeu was also member of the “Spanish Governmental Commission of the transformation of Basketball and Football clubs into incorporated sports companies”, “Member of the Executive Committee of the Spanish Basketball Federation” for 12 years as well as arbitrator for the Spanish Olympic Committee on the Court of Arbitration for Sport from October 1997.

Jordi’s

Major League Soccer (MLS) side DC United has been granted permission from the D.C. Council to begin construction work on a new 20, viagra coupon 000 seater stadium in Washington.

Full story HERE.

 

The National Football League (NFL) will remove the ceiling cap it has on proposed damages that are payable to former players who develop neurological illness through concussion.

The NFL has been accused of failing to educate players about the dangers of concussion in the sport by approximately 5, ampoule 000 ex-players.

Judge Anita Brody rejected the NFL’s original proposal of US$675m for cash payout as a part of a $765m package back in January. She said she was sceptical as to whether the amount was enough over a settlement that should last for 65 years.

NFL senior vice-president Anastasia Dania said: “Today’s agreement reaffirms the NFL’s commitment to provide help to those retired players and their families who are in need, and to do so without the delay, expense and emotional cost associated with protracted litigation.

“We are eager to move forward with the process of court approval and implementation of the settlement.”

Co-Lead plaintiff Christopher Seeger told ESPN: “Continuing to litigate against the NFL is a long and uncertain road that can take them many years and ultimately leave retired players with nothing at all.

“No one should take lightly any decision to abandon the benefits provided by this agreement.”

The revised settlement will retain a payout structure which takes into account the former players age and illness.

For example, a 50-year old with Alzheimer’s would receive $1.6m, a younger retiree with Lou Gehrig’s could get $5m and an 80-year old with dementia would receive $25,000.

Another aspect of the new deal would allow the NFL to appeal an unlimited amount of clamis instead of the 10 that is currently stipulated.

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The 2013-14 edition of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race will stop in Albany, pills Western Australia at the end of Leg 3 from Cape Town.

Crews will pull into Albany’s waterfront marina in late November after completing the ‘Southern Ocean Sleigh Ride’ leg from Cape Town.

City of Albany Mayor, salve Dennis Wellington, generic was particularly excited about the tourism opportunities that the Clipper Race will provide the city.

Wellington said: “Albany’s role as a host during the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race will be vital in attracting foreshore development and investment.

“We will not only see a direct economic benefit of AU$1 million this year, but it will be the perfect lead into the Anzac Centenary commemorations in 2014.

“The long term tourism benefits are likely to create further opportunities to drive the local economy into the future.”

The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race gives amateur sailors the opportunity to sail around the world with an experienced professional as their team leader.

The news of Albany being named a host port came on the same day that the GREAT Britain yacht was launched in Trafalgar Square, London.