Internet giant Amazon confirmed on Wednesday that it has acquired Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour rights in the UK and Ireland in a four-year deal starting from 2020.
As part of the deal, it will exclusively broadcast WTA tournaments from 2020 to 2023. WTA rights in the UK are currently held by pay-television broadcaster BT Sport.
The deal will start with a minimum of 49 tournaments in the first year, including the BNP Paribas Open, Miami Open, Madrid Open and China Open, as well as the season-ending WTA Finals in Shenzhen, China. In total, Amazon will broadcast up to 2,000 live and on-demand WTA matches.
The deal, which SportBusiness Media first reported last month, strengthens Amazon’s tennis-rights portfolio in the UK, which already includes the men’s ATP World Tour and the US Open grand slam.
