Manchester United launch new away shirt via Facebook Live

In a trend that is becoming increasingly common and will likely become mainstream before long, Manchester United has launched its 2016/2017 away shirt via Facebook Live.

With Chelsea FC leading the way in terms of using Facebook Live after their kit announcement last week, vicious rivals Manchester United have expanded the scope of the video, taking fans out onto Old Trafford for the shirt announcement.

With stars Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata accompanied by MUFC presenter Layla Anna-Lee on Wednesday morning for the exclusive launch, fans on Facebook (and even Facebook users who weren’t fans) got an exclusive look at the shirt before it reached other digital platforms.

Carlsberg kicks off “pubstitutions” as apart of EUROs Substitutions campaign

As apart of its EUROs “substitutions” campaign, Carlsberg will rename 19 English pubs around the country as well deck them out with new decor and special glassware.

The pubs will all become The Three Lions, and be given a new sign – which features Carlsberg’s long-time slogan ‘If Carlsberg did…’ The signs will include a variety of players including England captain Wayne Rooney and star strike Jamie Vardy

Some of the pubs will be visited by former England players and managers including Terry Venables and Lee Sharpe.

The first four pubs, which will be fitted out on Monday, 16 May, are: Famous 3 Kings, Fulham; Three Bulls Heads, Newcastle; Lion & Lamb, Cambridge, and Red Lion, Northampton. The remainder will receive their makeover in the following fortnight.

Carlsberg brand and sponsorship activation manager Paul Morris said that the campaign indicated their desire to be the only choice of beer during the EUROs

“We want to cement our status as the beer of choice for football fans and help our network of pubs deliver an incredible experience for their customers.”

NFL to add classic matches to YouTube in full as apart of new partnership

The NFL will start adding a number of classic matches in full to YouTube after renewing it’s “strategic partnership” with the platform.

The NFL only launched an official YouTube channel last year, however, it will gain further traction with this new development. The channel currently carries post-game recaps, clips, analysis, and a lot of “best of videos,” and has attracted more than 900 million views to date.

The two companies are also working together to get NFL highlights while the games are still in progress. Also accessible via Google, kickoff time and broadcast information for every match will be prominently displayed in Google Seach

Footballer gets behind footballing emojis

Southampton and England footballer Ryan Bertrand’s tech start-up company Silicon Markets’ latest product is an app that has emojis that look exactly like their footballing namesakes.

Named “Footiemoji”, the app  allows users to buy football-themed emoji packs for use in mobile messaging and counts ex-England captain and Bertrand’s former club colleague John Terry as a backer.

Bertrand said that while he of course hopes the business and the idea will be a success, it was more about creating a deep-seeded connection between the digital world and footballers themselves.

“When we pursued this it was a hands-on job because we wanted to have fun with it ourselves. It’s more of a hobby; it’s not really about money. There’s nothing like this on the market at the moment and we hope that football fans can have fantastic enjoyment with it.”

Digital Sport is the official social media partners of SportHackTag, the only event in Europe specifically focused on digital innovation in sports, being held at the Emirates Stadium in North London on the 24^th and 25^th of May 2016. For more information, visit them here