Amazon is giving away 15 hours of live sport on Black Friday – and you won’t need a Prime membership to watch any of it.
On Friday, November 27, Prime Video will stream a back-to-back run of golf, American football and basketball, starting at 2pm UK time and running into the early hours of Saturday.
Amazon says the whole lineup will be available in more than 200 countries and territories, the UK included, with no subscription or Prime membership required.
The best news for UK viewers is the timing of the main event. An NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Denver Broncos kicks off at 8pm, which is about as friendly as American sport ever gets on this side of the Atlantic. The basketball, as usual, is for night owls.
The Full Black Friday Lineup (UK Times)
- 2pm: The Skins Game (golf)
- 7.45pm: Black Friday Football pre-game show
- 8pm: Denver Broncos at Pittsburgh Steelers (NFL)
- Midnight: Miami Heat at New York Knicks (NBA Cup)
- 2.30am: Los Angeles Lakers at San Antonio Spurs (NBA Cup)
- Afterwards: NBA Nightcap, a post-game show
Of course, Amazon didn’t pick the date at random. Black Friday is its big shopping day, and its announcement openly pairs the sport with “exclusive deals and product drops.”
Getting people all over the world to open an Amazon app on the busiest shopping day of the year isn’t exactly charity, then. Still, nobody’s making you buy anything, and the sport costs nothing either way.
Golf First: The Skins Game
If golf usually sends you to sleep, the Skins Game might be the exception. It’s a one-off event with just four players, not a four-day tournament, and the format is easy to follow.
Instead of adding up strokes over the whole round, each hole carries a cash prize. If a hole is tied, the money rolls over to the next one, so a couple of tied holes in a row can leave a lot of money riding on a single putt.
The format dates back to 1983, when it became a fixture of the US Thanksgiving weekend. It ran until 2008, then disappeared, and was revived on Prime Video last year.
This year’s game takes place at Atlantic Fields Club in Hobe Sound, Florida, with a $4 million purse. The four players are Wyndham Clark (this year’s US Open champion), Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Jackson Koivun.
Amazon says Clark, Koepka and Thomas have 31 PGA Tour wins and nine major championships between them. Koivun is the newcomer: the rookie won the 3M Open in only his third start as a professional in July, then went unbeaten for the winning US team at the Presidents Cup in September.
Andrew Catalon hosts, with Colt Knost and Dan Rapaport commentating on the course.
Black Friday Football: Steelers v Broncos
Thanksgiving is one of the biggest weekends of the NFL season in America, and since 2023, Amazon has had a game of its own the day after, on Black Friday, streamed on Prime Video in the US. This year’s is the fourth.
The Pittsburgh Steelers host the Denver Broncos at Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium. The pre-game show starts at 7.45pm with Charissa Thompson and a panel of former players including Tony Gonzalez and Richard Sherman, before Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit take over commentary for the 8pm kick-off.
Amazon says some of the extras US viewers get with its NFL coverage will also be available in “select locations” worldwide. The list includes HDR video, Next Gen Stats (the NFL’s on-screen player-tracking stats) and Rapid Recap, which lets you catch up on the key moments if you tune in late.
Amazon hasn’t said which locations get them, so don’t count on all of them in the UK.
In the UK, the NFL normally means Sky Sports, which shows more than half of all games after its biggest ever NFL deal, or 5, which shows two free games every Sunday evening.
Outside the US, this game will also be available to paying subscribers of NFL Game Pass on DAZN, but there’s no need to pay when Prime Video is showing it for free.
The NBA Doubleheader: Knicks And Spurs
Then comes the night shift. At midnight, the Miami Heat visit the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks are the reigning NBA champions, having beaten the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals in June.
At 2.30am, the Spurs themselves are in action, hosting the Los Angeles Lakers in San Antonio.
Both games are part of the NBA Cup (officially the Emirates NBA Cup), the league’s in-season tournament, and November 27 is the final night of its group stage. The knockout rounds follow between December 4 and 11.
Prime Video started showing NBA games in the UK last season, and they’re normally included with a Prime membership. So Black Friday is a chance to see what Amazon’s basketball coverage is like without paying for it – if you can stay awake.
How To Watch – And The Catch
Amazon hasn’t spelt out how this year’s free stream works, but last year’s free Black Friday games only needed a free Amazon account. You then watched in the Prime Video app (on smart TVs, Fire TV and other streaming devices, phones and tablets) or on the Prime Video website.
As with Prime Video’s other live sport, expect adverts.
And one thing that doesn’t change just because the stream is free: you still need a valid TV licence to watch any of it live. The rules are the same whether it’s the BBC, Sky or Prime Video – if you’re watching a live broadcast, you need to be covered.
Watching a replay on Prime Video afterwards doesn’t need one.
If the NBA coverage wins you over, it’s included with Prime, and new members (or those who haven’t had Prime for 12 months) can get a 30-day free trial.
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