Global corporation Amazon may already have acquired rights to certain football matches in the United Kingdom for a very select few Premier League games as well as in Germany for Bundesliga matches, however it appears they are now looking to go into another market.
The company are considering to make a bid to acquire the rights for the UEFA Champions League in Italy for the 2021-2024 period. The rights are up at the end of the season as current exclusivity holders, Sky Italia’s contract is set to expire and the exclusivity factor will no longer be in place. Having paid UEFA a total of 280 million euros for the exclusivity, the company have already revealed that they would not be prepared to offer as much once again. Bettors already have a wide range of options that they can use to access Champions League betting markets, with sbobet just one of many that can be visited.
However, a report by Milano Finanza has revealed that Amazon will have a number of competitors challenging them in acquiring the rights for the continental club competitions. The first to challenge is said to be Rai, which is a free-to-air TV station and has already seen a rise in the ratings that midweek football can bring to them, especially in terms of advertising revenue.
DAZN will also be involved in the bidding process, as they will likely look to increase their own presence in Italy as they already have rights to a handful of Serie A matches and other sporting events in the country.
However, Eurosport (who are owned and operated by the Discovery Group) are also thought to be considering whether to make a move to acquire the rights to show the tournament in Italy, although there is a suggestion that they are not willing to pay over the odds to provide the images to viewers. Bettors who might be disappointed with the news that the giants may not bid for the rights can get over that disappointment rather quickly though when they visit gclub.
One company that Amazon may not have to consider as a competitor for the Champions League rights, though, is Netflix. The fellow American streaming giants are said to be more interested in acquiring image rights for the Serie A tournament rather than the continental club competition and do not envisage a move any time soon.
With the amount of competition potentially being faced, it remains to be seen if Amazon are able to acquire the rights for the UEFA competitions, although it certainly shows their intention in trying to become a major player within the footballing sphere around Europe.
