• Registered: Jan. 16, 2009
  • Posts: 82

Topic: Twitter Troubles

Tennis officials have warned players about the potential hazards of using Twitter during tournaments. Mostly concerned that what they tweet could breach anti-corruption rules in the sport and cause a whole heap of trouble.
Andy Roddick is a die-hard twitter fan, and hasn't sounded too impressed with the new warning, pointing out that it'd be a pretty stupid person who posted anything that was 'insider info' on such a public thing as Twitter.

Sounds like the updates on injuries etc is what is worrying them the most. Other sports have had their players very strongly cautioned on tweeting about the sport, some even outright told not to.


I think the most interesting thing here is where the line lies between personal freedom to write what you want on social networking sites as other 'normal' people do, and potentially allowing corruption within a sport that's had some trouble with it in the past.


What does everyone think? Could anything that a tennis player tweets be so potentially sensitive that it ruins the sport? Or are the over-reacting a tad? Should tennis players tweet or not?

  • Registered: Dec. 26, 2008
  • Posts: 217

Re: Twitter Troubles

I'm not sure I understand what they are scared of? What type of information could a player tweet about that would be insider info? Reporters and bloggers are constantly updating fans with detailed info, so why is a tweet different?

  • Registered: Jan. 16, 2009
  • Posts: 29

Re: Twitter Troubles

Theyre probably worried that injury updates would give some people chance to bet etc. i dont know really. seems a little odd.

I found this here on the BBC:

They add that sending "certain sensitive information concerning your match or other matches and/or players should be avoided. Depending on the information sent out this could be determined as the passing of 'inside information.'"

This is defined as "information about the likely participation or likely performance of a player in an event or concerning the weather, court conditions, status, outcome or any other aspect of an event which is known by a Covered Person and is not information in the public domain."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/8228398.stm

Still, it seems a bit over the top.

I guess theyre worried about lower ranking players, younger guys who may be swayed to get involved with corruption and dodgy betting, not necessarily Roddick adn the like.

  • Registered: May. 17, 2009
  • Posts: 39

Re: Twitter Troubles

It's hard for people in the USA to imagine why this would matter, but in many countries betting on sports is totally legal and this information I guess could be used to sway the odds or alert betters to problems. It's more real time than a news article or blog post, and it can come directly from the players themselves when they are in the locker room or anywhere. It still seems strange to me, but I can see some small reasons for them doing this.

  • Registered: Dec. 26, 2008
  • Posts: 217

Re: Twitter Troubles

Andy Roddick had a few things to tweet about this issue:

http://straightsets.blogs.nytimes.com/2 … new-rules/