This Week in the Digital Sports Jungle

High scores, bad calls, and the latest advances, I take you through this week's highlights.  Here's what everyone is talking about online in the sports world:

Twitter

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. made a promise before the Daytona 500 that he would join Twitter if he won the race. He not only won, but paid tribute to his late racing legend father with a tweeted photo.  http://bit.ly/1kgmx7B

• PGA Golfer Steve Elkington tweets gay slur about first openly gay NFL athlete Michael Sam, and after receiving extensive criticism tries to clarify remarks, but it’s too little too late.  http://lat.ms/1hvtqi3 

Marketing

• Jason Collins, the first openly gay NBA player signs 10-day contract to play for Brooklyn Nets and wears No. 98 to honor fallen gay student Michael Shepherd.  NBA.com launches Collins jerseys for sale online amidst unprecedented number of requests.  http://nyti.ms/1o3s3rs

• Brazil’s local government sends out a formal complaint to Adidas to stop using sexual undertones and sex appeal to sell World Cup products promoting the event in the host country. Adidas removes the limited edition t-shirts for sale after complaint is filed. http://yhoo.it/1dIMIfN

T-shirts withdrawn by Adidas for the Brazil World Cup Photograph: Adidas

New Technology

• Starting March 30^th, Major League Baseball will join the ranks of other professional sports with the introduction of instant replay to the game and put an end to missed calls.  The system will cover most plays and managers are allowed one challenge a game. http://usat.ly/1fYCx7j

http://bit.ly/1fOkaFO

• Major League Baseball fans with the MLB’s free At the Ballpark app will have the opportunity to do more from their seats including ordering a hot dog or buying a souvenir.  More than 20 Major League parks will utilize Apple’s new groundbreaking iBeacon technology this season. http://bit.ly/1eJLrF1

Social Sharing

• At the age of 54, Brenda Gold has set her sights on making the Ben-Gals squad, the official cheerleading team for the Cincinnati Bengals.  She even received a make-over for her future career pursuits while on LIVE with Kelly and Michael.   http://usat.ly/NbR88o

• The Milwaukee Brewers adopted a stray dog at spring training, named him Hank, and his cuteness has gone viral. The pup took center stage as the newest mascot in his sausage run debut. http://deadsp.in/1hpOGph

(Photo credit: Cheryl Evans/The Arizona Republic)

2013: A LOOK BACK IN SPORTS - PART 3 - GOLF

Continuing last week's coverage, I take a look this week at Nielsen's data on sports fans in 2013 focusing on the latest findings on golf.  You can read the full summarized report here: www.nielsen.com/us/en/reports/2014/year-in-the-sports-media-report-2013.html: I've read through it and here's some of the most interesting facts from the past year:

http://bit.ly/NpnpZm

The biggest names in golf teed off an exciting year in 2013, with standout performances from Phil Mickelson wining the British Open to Tiger Woods raking in five tournament victories.  The Final Round at the Masters alone brought a 9% increase in viewership over 2012.  While rising young stars like Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth continue to make headlines and threaten the legacy of the veteran champs, golf viewership remains tethered to an unchanging demographic of affluent, older, white men that has remained the same over the past decade.  

 

·      14.7 million TV viewers clicked their remotes over to the Masters in 2013

·      The average PGA viewer is a white male, aged 55 or older who makes $40-$75k a year. The second largest demographic includes those making $100K or more a year.

·      Avid PGA fans skew older and wealthier, however they are also very tech savvy, consuming content on a variety of devices, golf fans are actually the least likely to watch sports on TV than fans of any other sport, but are:

o   30% more likely to watch on a mobile app

o   33% more likely to watch on a tablet

o   20% more likely to watch at work

·      Avid PGA fans are 60% more likely than the average consumer to own stocks/stock options and 43% more likely to own second homes.

·      Top PGA advertiser: Cialis RX

·      NASCAR has the highest share of female fans of any sport on TV at 37%, however PGA viewership is not far behind with 35% of the audience makeup skewing female.

·      The top two golfers tweeted at Augusta include Tiger Woods and Adam Scott, with 127,000 and 234,000 tweets respectively, surrounding their names.  Golf fans are in full Twitter swing!