One of the aims for the recently updated Mediapoint platform is to make sure that we’re constantly bringing improvements to the product. As customers look to stay on top of industry-related news or crisis management we want to make sure they can easily discover the stories that matter to them – whether that’s as a story breaks or to help plan for the future. With this in mind, our latest release has included two extremely useful updates for all users.

PA Training has been finding and nurturing new talent for the media industry for many years – and this continues with an extraordinary year for our apprentice reporters.

Junior journalists from Sky, ITV, the Telegraph, Archant, KMG, West Ham FC, Evening Standard/Independent and the Racing Post have completed their training, with 100% of our 2018 starts on course to pass.

These new journalists have won numerous awards and have been producing content to professional standards from the start.

Self-isolation, social-distancing and home-working have become the buzzwords of the coronavirus crisis. More than just words, they’re rapidly becoming a new way of life. One through necessity we’re all having to come to terms with.

As a social species this takes some considerable adjustment for most of us. New restrictions on our freedom of movement inhibit our opportunity to interact: with our families, friends, colleagues and clients.

Yet just as barriers are placed in the pathway of human communication the need to communicate has rarely been needed more urgently.

As business reels from everything COVID-19 has to throw at it, with worse still to come, keeping our staff onside and our clients on board has never been more important.

We’ve seen some, like Sports Direct, by their own admission, get things badly wrong. Government messaging too has sometimes been found wanting.

But plenty of others are getting it right. Communicating regularly, consistently and clearly.

Like Number 9 buses, you might wait all year for a message from the CEO of a FTSE 100 company, then half a dozen come along at once. But there’s been a sense in much of this unsolicited correspondence that these top bosses are looking after our best interests and are being prepared to change tack based on customer feedback.

PA Training programmes have been shifted online to allow trainers and delegates to learn, connect and communicate in a safe, virtual environment.

At PA Media, like many other businesses the nation over, we have vacated our offices due to the COVID-19 pandemic. My office, the East Yorkshire Operations Centre is home to a vast array of teams, from our page and print services, to sport news, finance, racing & betting services as well as the sports data team that I’m a part of.

It has been really quite astounding how adaptable our teams are proving to be – uprooting hardware at the flick of a switch, relocating to home, all the while maintaining our exemplary levels of performance – our data services are all now essentially being operated remotely.

This unprecedented upheaval has not only had an impact on our operations but, clearly, also on our large portfolio of high-profile sports data clients – our respective commercial teams continue to work closely with them, offering guidance and support through what is a difficult time.

The betting industry, along with the rest of the world, has been forced to adapt to COVID-19. This has led to much of the sector identifying esports as a potential avenue to go down for alternative betting markets, particularly while real sports are suspended.

However, esports betting is still seen as an unknown entity with many firms lacking understanding of the market. SBC News spoke to Richard Duncan, Head of Business Development for PA Betting Services, to discuss why it is a valuable proposition for betting operators and some of the risks to avoid.