Many Americans will likely shop or place online orders this Black Friday. But National Football League fans will give thanks that there is another football game to watch.
What Happened: Amazon.com Inc AMZN looking to cash in on extra viewership for the second straight year when Prime Video airs a Black Friday NFL game.
On Friday, the Las Vegas Raiders (2-9) take on the Kansas City Chiefs (10-1) in Kansas City. The game streams exclusively on Prime Video.
While the teams don't have similar records and the game has the largest spread for an expected dominant performance for the Chiefs, Amazon hopes viewers will tune in.
Sportsbook DraftKings Inc DKNG lists the betting spread as the Chiefs favored by 13.5 points. Of the NFL's Week 13 matchups, that’s the biggest spread. The Chiefs are 10-1 on the season as one of the top teams, but have been winning games close.
The Chiefs are 5-6 against the spread on the season, meaning they win games, but not by the margins expected by sportsbooks. Earlier this season, the Chiefs beat the Raiders 27-20.
Amazon is the exclusive home of "Thursday Night Football" games and viewership for the 2024 season is averaging 13.3 million for those contests, up 8% year-over-year, as reported by Sportico.
Last year's Black Friday NFL game saw the Miami Dolphins defeat the New York Jets 34-13 with an average of 9.61 million people watching, less than the average for "Thursday Night Football" games at the time.
Items helping Amazon could be a minimal slate of sports content early Friday with the game set to kickoff at 3 p.m. ET and the fact that the Chiefs are in the game.
The Chiefs are America's most watched team in 2024 with eight national TV games averaging 24.2 million viewers this season.
While no NFL team has won three consecutive Super Bowls, the Chiefs are looking to be the first and have been among the top favored teams at sportsbooks. Back in February, the Chiefs ranked second in Super Bowl LIX odds at +650. The Chiefs moved to first throughout the 2024 season, but now rank second at +475 to the Detroit Lions (+260) who now hold an NFL best 11-1 record the Chiefs will hope to tie Friday.
Read Also: Here’s Why The Detroit Lions, Dallas Cowboys Always Have Thanksgiving Day NFL Games
Why It Matters: Amazon could gain subscribers for Prime or the standalone Prime Video streaming platform membership.
Amazon is also set to get a boost to its advertising revenue thanks to the strong demand for live sports content. Amazon charged up to $750,000 per 30-second advertisement. The company averaged $565,000 for its ad rates, which among NFL coverage trails only "Sunday Night Football" on NBC and "Monday Night Football" on ESPN averages of $1 million and $665,000 respectively.
The e-commerce giant sold out of advertising inventory months ago and saw strong demand from newcomers who didn't advertise in last year's game and haven't advertised in this season's "Thursday Night Football" games.
Amazon has commanded a younger audience for its NFL games with an average age of 48.4 compared to a national average of 55.4 and a broadcast average of 63.0.
Advertisers and Amazon will be hoping that trends from last year continue. In last year's Black Friday game, viewers were 78% more likely to search for brands they saw advertise during the NFL game.
This could be good news for advertisers who include Ralph Lauren, Google Pixel, Uber Eats, Solo Stove and Microsoft, as reported by AdWeek.
QR codes shown during last year's Black Friday game had 350% higher engagement than during other NFL games.
Leading the way with QR codes will likely be Amazon itself who with the rights to the game can control how many ad spots they get and how often they put their own QR codes on screen hoping to take advantage of the viewers while non-sports fans are also shopping on the e-commerce site throughout the weekend.
Price Action: Amazon stock trades at $205.61 on Friday versus a 52-week trading range of $142.81 to $215.90. Amazon stock is up 37% year-to-date in 2024.
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© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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