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All you need to know on Amazon Prime's Premier League football service

Amazon Prime Video to stream all ten midweek matches live

Amazon Prime will broadcast 20 Premier League games this season
Amazon Prime will broadcast 20 Premier League games this season

New ground will be broken in this midweek round of Premier League action with technological giants Amazon involved for the first time in English football.

The Merseyside derby and Jose Mourinho's return to Old Trafford will be the highlights on Wednesday as Amazon screen all ten matches across three days. However, it all starts with the more humble surroundings of Selhurst Park when Crystal Palace host Bournemouth.

Bookmakers have mixed views on what effect it will have on turnover.

"We are quite optimistic," said Coral's John Hill and Betfair's Barry Orr added: "We don't envisage any negative impact and, if anything, having all the matches live is a positive."

That view was not shared by Rupert Adams of Hills.

He said: "We'd definitely expect to see an impact on turnover.

"The amount of subscribers to Amazon's video service is half that compared to Sky and my impression is that those who actually watch live sports on the channel is significantly lower than Sky. Punters and sports fans do not like to change habitual behaviour."

Betway's Alan Alger hopes the short-term pain could be a long-term gain.

"In the long term it can only be a good thing that punters have pictures for all ten games, although we'd prefer them to be on one platform as multiple subscriptions clearly has an impact and I would guess with these upcoming Amazon windows the number of viewers will be down which will therefore affect what business is taken."

Subscription fatigue could well be a factor, although the more savvy football supporters will be aiming to bag a free monthly trial which will not only allow them to access this midweek action but also the full Boxing Day programme as well as using Prime's free delivery service which may be handy for Christmas shopping.

"It's a good time of the year to get Amazon Prime but having a third TV subscription to potentially add to people's bills cannot be a good thing, particularly for fans in their early twenties who have enough to spend their money on," said Paddy Power's Lee Price.

A bigger concern may be the complaints from tennis fans who have generally offered negative feedback to Amazon's US Open output.

It has been known to be lag significantly behind the action, offering the possibility for goals to be flashed up on mobile notification devices or social media before Amazon's coverage.

Peter Spencer of Betfred said: "Streams have been up to 30 seconds behind but we have not seen a negative impact - if anything there has been a rise in tennis in-play turnover with Amazon generating interest in the first place by showing the matches.

Alex Apati of Ladbrokes added: "We have time-based information for our customers which will ensure they are provided with the same experience of any top-flight football."

Some pubs will show the games after a deal was struck between Amazon and BT Sport.


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