The US' National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) has unveiled a multi-year, multi-faceted expansion of its partnership with retail giant Amazon.
Through the tie-up, the industry behemoth is now the exclusive retail sponsor of the 14-team NWSL, while the Amazon Prime subscription offering has become the presenting partner for the NWSL Best XI awards (recognizing the best players for each position every month, as well as at the end of each season).
Amazon Prime Video is already set to be one of the league’s domestic broadcast partners for the upcoming 2024 campaign (set to get underway this coming weekend) through a major multi-season deal unveiled in November last year. Prime Video will, through the tie-up, exclusively show 27 NWSL matches each season.
The overall Amazon brand has, in addition, now been named as an NWSL licensee, meaning fans will be able to use the Amazon Fan Shop “for hundreds of officially licensed NWSL products from Merch on Demand, Amazon’s print-on-demand service.”
As well as this, the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud-based wing will become the home of NWSL match content from previous campaigns, enabling the NWSL to “easily transfer historical footage and surface highlights, interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage to enhance fan engagement.”
AWS and Prime Video will also start testing a cloud-based “game production solution” for NWSL matches.
Julie Haddon, chief marketing and commercial officer at the NWSL, said: “Amazon’s global reach and customer-centric approach pairs perfectly with the NWSL’s fan-forward ethos. This partnership will not only amplify the NWSL’s fandom and growth, but will also offer our fans an easy and accessible way to support their favorite teams and athletes.”
Overall, this adds up to one of the NWSL's most all-encompassing commercial tie-ups.
In addition to the Amazon Prime Video deal, the NWSL will - through the 2027 campaign - also be shown domestically by ESPN, CBS (the incumbent partner), and Scripps.
The networks will pay a combined $240 million over the four seasons - $60 million annually - with CBS retaining the rights to the league’s season finale.
The deals were brokered on behalf of the league by the Endeavor-owned IMG and WME Sports agencies.
Beginning in 2024, 118 matches will be distributed across the platforms of the four broadcasters.
The deals will run for four years so the league rights can be sold again directly after the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which the US and Mexico are bidding to host.
The 2024 NWSL regular season will run from March 16 to early November.
In mid-February, the women’s league entered into another multi-year deal with a tech giant, on that occasion with the Google Pixel brand, now in place as the NWSL’s mobile phone partner.
Amazon, meanwhile, is also an official partner of women's soccer for the game's governing body in Europe, UEFA.
