“It’s right here, it’s actual, it’s occurring,” stated play-by-play announcer Ian Eagle. “The NBA on Prime.”
And with that, Amazon’s foray into dwell streaming NBA video games tipped off.
Amazon marked a significant milestone with its rising sports activities portfolio on Friday, broadcasting its first-ever dwell NBA recreation around the globe. The matchup — Celtics vs. Knicks — was a part of an 11-year deal that offers Amazon unique rights to pick out common season and playoff video games.
We watched the sport through Prime Video — accessible with a $139/yr Prime subscription — and got here away impressed.
The stream ran seamlessly throughout Hearth TV, iPhone, and MacBook. The standard was crisp, load instances near-instant, and there wasn’t a touch of lag — not less than on a house WiFi connection. Amazon’s 1080p HDR video and 5.1 encompass sound had been a slam dunk.
The printed regarded and felt like a standard nationwide telecast. The graphics mirrored what followers count on from ESPN or TNT, the commentary got here from acquainted voices — Eagle and Stan Van Gundy — and the pregame present from featured a slick set with former NBA stars at Amazon MGM Studios.
However beneath the floor, Amazon quietly examined a brand new frontier: in-stream sports activities betting.
Essentially the most noticeable new function was the FanDuel integration, Amazon’s newest experiment in mixing dwell sports activities and interactive know-how.
Followers watching on Hearth TV may log into their FanDuel accounts by Prime Video to view real-time betting info and monitor wagers immediately throughout the broadcast.
You may’t make precise bets on Prime Video — not but, not less than— but it surely marks a delicate but important shift in how dwell sports activities could evolve on streaming platforms.
And it comes at an interesting second: the NBA is coping with a major betting scandal that made headlines this week and entails the FBI.
I used to be stunned when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver joined the published for a dwell interview. Sideline reporter Cassidy Hubbarth opened by asking concerning the scandal.
Silver stated he was “deeply disturbed” upon listening to the information.
“There’s nothing extra vital to the league and its followers than the integrity of the competitors,” he stated.
Silver additionally praised Amazon’s protection: “I ought to have began [by saying] how excited we’re to be on Amazon,” he stated. “I suppose I wouldn’t have predicted that my first interview on Amazon can be about sports activities betting.”
The interview underscored how Amazon’s protection didn’t shrink back from real-time information relevance — including a standard journalistic layer inside a tech-powered broadcast.
It was additionally a surreal second: the NBA’s high official discussing a sports activities betting scandal throughout the league’s debut on a platform now integrating betting instruments into its stream.
Amazon has different new tech-fueled options together with advanced NBA stats powered by Amazon Net Companies — however I didn’t discover that in Friday’s broadcast.
One of many solely stumbles for me got here on the Hearth TV person expertise, which feels clunky in comparison with cell or desktop. Navigation wasn’t intuitive, and the distant’s button mapping made easy actions more durable than anticipated.
However total, the entire expertise felt much less like a tech demo and extra like a completed product.
Amazon’s sports activities technique is crystalizing: use dwell sports activities to drive Prime signups and increase engagement throughout its ecosystem. The printed was promoted on Amazon’s homepage and apps. Reside sports activities additionally helps gasoline Amazon’s rising promoting enterprise.
Bloomberg reported that Amazon is paying $1.8 billion yearly for the NBA rights.
As more people cut the cord, sports activities leagues are more and more partnering with tech corporations as their present offers with conventional cable suppliers expire. Firms like Amazon, Apple, and Netflix are hungry for helpful content material comparable to dwell sports activities to attract extra subscribers to their respective platforms.
Amazon additionally aired the Timberwolves vs. Lakers recreation on Friday night. It’s going to stream 66 common season video games this yr, together with some playoff video games.
The corporate additionally separate offers to air the NFL’s Thursday Night time Soccer, WNBA, and Premier League, amongst different sports-related programming on its Prime Video platform.
The NBA debut on Friday was a reminder of Amazon’s strategy to dwell sports activities: mix the reliability of broadcast TV with delicate tech layers — comparable to betting, information, and e-commerce — constructed on its AWS cloud infrastructure and Prime membership mannequin.
