A new week and the countdown to the start of the Formula One season has properly begun with the first race in Melbourne this weekend. So expect to see much more coming out about what their latest plans will be and a big drive to get new fans tuning in. But aside from that there is plenty going on around the world to keep us interested….

Formula One locks in Snapchat extension (sportspromedia.com)

Formula One’s drive into becoming a  social media savvy organisation continues on a pace ahead of the new season. With Snapchat’s in-house team helping to curate images from races together with HD quality footage, it could be the place to go to for an alternative look at F1. Though it might take more than that to encourage me into tuning into the platform I’m afraid.

UMBC’s epic NCAA tournament upset through the eyes of its Twitter handle (espn.com)

Social media should be fun in my book and sometimes we take it far too seriously, especially in sport. But thankfully the likes of AS Roma, Southampton and Bristol City are showing what can be done when you start being a bit more creative. So when 16th seeds UMBC took on the no.1 seeds and started winning, they decided to make the most of the moment. Good on them!

Dugout eyes livestreaming rights after News Corp deal (digiday.com)

Sports start-up (can we still call them that?) Dugout is starting to evolve. Their move over the last couple of years to bring in unique content has had mixed results, but this latest deal moves them more into the sports rights business. So could they become the next sports OTT platform? One that has the backing of some major European football clubs? Hmmm.

Inside ESPN’s Snapchat SportsCenter Strategy (frntofficesports.com)

An intriguing behind-the-scenes look at how a somewhat struggling sports show has looked to reinvent itself on Snapchat and engage with a brand new audience. We’ve seen it with Copa90 and their link up with Bleacher Report, plus we’ll soon have more F1 content on the platform. The social media platforms are really starting to evolve and with sport at their core.

Twitter swells sport content for Asia Pacific users with multiple video deals (rapidtvnews.com)

As if to reinforce earlier points about social media + live sport. Here are a raft of new announcements from Twitter that cover everything from Wimbledon to this summer’s FIFA World Cup. With all the major platforms mixing live with user engagement, what they become in the next couple of years could be a big change from what see now.

AFL clubs turning to AR, AI, VR in 2018 (digitalsportslabs.com)

A quick summary to finish with of how some of the AFL clubs are looking to use AR, VR and AI to engage with fans ahead of the launch of the new season. Not sure there is a similar summary for Premier League clubs over here. One for my ‘to-do’ list maybe…