Facebook team up with Sport England

Interesting to hear more about the partnership between Sport England and Facebook - the first long term partnership between Facebook and a public body in the UK.

The deal is said to be worth up to £20 million and aims to contribute to the delivery of the Olympic legacy from 2012 - more people playing sport.

By using the social networking site’s influence Sport England hopes to bring people together and transform the way sports bodies relate to the public.

There will be a Facebook ‘Sport Hub’, which will enable NGBs to engage with over 20 million people who use Facebook in the UK. This 'hub' will feel like a Facebook fan page, but will also feature innovative new applications enabling sports bodies and teams to organise and market sports events.

Users will also be able to challenge people in their area to compete against them and then share the results across their networks.

Facebook is to provide an in-kind investment of £5 million a year until March 2013, which will cover the development of the ‘Sport Hub’, as well as pound-for-pound matched advertising spend on Facebook for brands and NGBs to use Facebook ads to encourage people to play more sport.

Students and young people who use Facebook will be the first to benefit - starting at this year’s university freshers’ week. Sport England is piloting the scheme through British Universities & Colleges Sport and six sports. The pilot has an ambitious target to get 12,000 students participating in sport in just four months.