At the end of last week, French Ligue 1 giants Olympique Marseille had their Twitter account suspended, seemingly for a breach of copyright.

A video posted on an account years ago could well have been flagged up by Twitter’s algorithm as the site attempts to crack down on the unwarranted use of copyright materials posted on its site.

Marseille weren’t the only ones to fall foul of what appears to be such a drive by the social media platform. This week, some publishers like SportBible and Copa90 had their Twitter accounts suspended, possibly because for the same reason.

More and more, rightsholders are seeding highlights and near-live clips onto social media. Whilst that might be difficult to justify for some leagues given their current media rights deals, it certainly shouldn’t be overlooked as a way of presenting content to fans. Last weekend, the PGA Tour and NBA showed how valuable these can be – especially in golf, where following the entire tournament on social media can be a much more attractive proposition to a generation of fans who have been lost to the sport.

Dead rubber games

This week has also thrown up an interesting phenomenon. It’s one that sport has had for years, ever since leagues were founded: dead rubbers.

Manchester United v Liverpool last weekend was a game between two teams who certainly won’t win the league, who will probably both finish in the top four, and who definitely had the Champions League on their minds.

This weekend’s Six Nations game between Ireland and England matters a great deal to the Irish, who travel to Twickenham searching for a victory over the English in London to seal a Grand Slam on St Patrick’s Day. The setting of the scene alone is enough to make any Irishman crave a pint of the black stuff, but for England it’s a different story: sure, they won’t want to lose, but do they really care about winning? Perhaps not.

In a world where excitement and build-up are now of critical importance after years of over-hyping sporting events and the cauldron that social media provides, dead rubbers throw up an interesting question: just how do we market them?

Leagues flocking to esports

It’s no secret that esports is growing. It’s our Topic of the Month here at Digital Sport and with good reason. But its growth often amazes: the calibre of those getting involved just gets bigger and bigger. Or at least wider.

After the rush of football clubs and leagues onto FIFA18 and beyond, this week, we’ve seen MotoGP and NHL both create esports leagues to run alongside their own competitions.

Everyone seems to have a different approach, but one thing’s for sure: they all want a piece.