Baseball Bends Rules for Snapchat Partnership

Snapchats SnapBat, designed to be used as part of the event
Snapchats SnapBat, designed to be used as part of the event

Major League Baseball (MLB) is relaxing its own rules about use of social media in the dugout and bullpen in order to power its partnership with photo messaging service Snapchat. During spring training games on 11 March, players will be allowed to post to Snapchat, providing fans with a rarely-seen glimpse behind the scenes.

The event is part of Snapchats expanded agreement with MLB, which will see the company retain access to official logos and trademarks, and gain access to more behind-the-scenes content that will be shared via a Live Story on the app.

As part of the event, Snapchat has even created a SnapBat, a baseball bat-shaped selfie stick, although its unlikely it will be used to hit any actual pitches.

Baseball, like many other sports, has strict rules in place about the use of social media during games. Last season, Pablo Sandoval, third-baseman for the Boston Red Sox, was benched for using Instagram during a 5-2 loss against the Atlanta Braves.

However, given the popularity of social media among both sports fans and athletes, experiments like Snapchats partnership with MLB are likely to become more common, especially during low-stakes games. For example, the NFL relaxed rules to allow players to tweet during the 2012 Pro Bowl.

Given that Snapchat also has multi-year partnerships with the NFL, NHL, NBA and National Collegiate Athletic Association, we may see more Snapchat events in the future, particularly as organisations seek ways to reach younger, digital-first consumers.