Amazon continues to invest in live sports, and its latest acquisition is the professional league for America’s fastest-growing sport: pickleball.
Amazon Prime Video has announced a partnership alongside the Professional Pickleball Association Tour in a multiyear deal that includes airing four live PPA Tour events annually.
The first tournament -- the Arcytech Atlanta Open -- will air on the streaming platform on May 18.
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The other three tournaments Amazon will broadcast for the 2023-24 World Championship Series are the Vulcan Kansas City Open in August, the Guaranteed Rate Championships, and the Boca Raton Open, both in October.
The announcement from Amazon comes just a week after the company committed between $50 million to $100 million to air the NFL’s first Black Friday game on Prime -- which is on top of the $1 billion per year the company is already paying to broadcast Thursday Night Football.
The PPA has already secured several partnerships with companies like Disney, Fox, and FanDuel. ESPN, for example, will be airing seven of the PPA Tour Events.
The PPA’s rival league, the Association of Pickleball Professionals, also has a partnership deal with ESPN and CBS.
Pickleball has continued to grow exponentially with an APP report saying that about 36.5 million -- or about 14% of Americans -- played pickleball in a 12-month span starting August 2021.
The sport’s pro leagues have also seen support from top athletes in other fields as the likes of LeBron James, Tom Brady, and Naomi Osaka are owners of teams in Major League Pickleball, a team-based professional pickleball league.
