E-commerce and media company Amazon has furthered its reach in the sports market by agreeing a partnership with mixed martial arts promotion the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
The deal will see Amazon’s video subscription service, Amazon Prime Video, offer the UFC’s pay-per-view events to its customers in the US.
The length of the deal was not disclosed but it will commence with UFC 222 on Saturday, which is being headlined by the fight between Cris Cyborg (pictured) and Yana Kunitskaya for the women’s featherweight title.
Amazon’s deal will cover all UFC PPV events moving forward, with Saturday’s launch priced at $64.99 (€52). Customers are not required to be Prime members to make purchases.
The Amazon deal comes as the UFC markets its broadcast rights in the US. UFC president Dana White has previously admitted that the promotion’s next rights deal could focus more on an agreement with a digital platform rather than a television broadcaster.
The UFC has taken its US broadcast rights to the open market after an exclusive negotiating period expired with current partner, pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports.
The promotion is currently engaged in a seven-year deal with Fox which runs from 2012 to 2018, but the window for extending this contract passed last year.