Amazon is gearing up for what could be its biggest sports media week of the year with Prime Video’s exclusive, free stream of the first-ever NFL Black Friday game — but another league is on its radar, too.

As almost every major media company explores potential bids for the NBA’s next set of media rights deals, Amazon isn’t being shy about its interest and exactly what it wants: postseason games. “Would something like the playoffs be an important part of [our bid]? Yes, I think that’s fair to say,” Amazon Global Head of Sports Jay Marine told Sports Business Journal.

Sources previously told Front Office Sports that Amazon was eying a specific package of NBA regular-season games on either Tuesday or Thursday nights. The idea was to mimic the success it has had with “Thursday Night Football” — which has seen big viewership increases in its second season.

But adding playoff games would be a new evolution for Amazon’s sports efforts. While the NFL plans to stream a wild-card game exclusively on Peacock in January, Amazon doesn’t have any postseason rights. It is, however, among the companies interested in acquiring some College Football Playoff rights.

Not So Fast

Another streamer being discussed as a potential NBA rights bidder may not be as interested as previously thought.

Last week, a report linked Netflix as a suitor for the rights to the NBA In-Season Tournament, which will likely be sold as its own package. But now, Bloomberg reports that while Netflix remains intrigued with filming an NBA-related docuseries, the company says it isn’t interested in live game rights.

Though it divided locals, had a rocky beginning, and is still facing legal fallout, the Las Vegas Grand Prix ultimately provided a historic windfall for sportsbooks.

Even as Max Verstappen continued his Formula 1 dominance with his 16th win in 17 races, Caesars Sportsbooks set a new company record for total betting handle on any motorsports event, while rival entity BetMGM and the local Station Casinos, Westgate SuperBook, and Red Rock Resort similarly reported record handle for an F1 Race.

“It was three times Daytona’s numbers,” Craig Mucklow, Caesars vice president of trading, told the Las Vegas Review Journal, referencing the high-profile NASCAR event. “It was well over seven figures.”

BetMGM said it tripled the number of bets for any prior F1 event during the Las Vegas Grand Prix. 

The full impact of the race on sportsbooks will be more fully understood next month, when the Nevada Gaming Control Board releases its monthly report for November.

Late-Night Starts

The 10 p.m. local start time of the race — 1 a.m. on the East Coast — remains the subject of debate, and efforts are already in motion to ensure an earlier start. That time was chosen in part to minimize the disruption to local citizens, who already endured months of headaches due to the extended track construction. 

But several drivers and team executives are also pushing for an earlier start to aid their own time-zone acclimation traveling from Europe, as F1 continues to show growing pains in becoming a truly global sport.

“In the past, we had no issue because F1 was just for the European people, and we had to stick to the European timing, and it was okay,” said Fred Vasseur, Ferrari team principal, to ESPN. “Now it’s a worldwide project, and it’s much more difficult to find something fitting with the expectations of the 24-hour zone.”

The troubled runup to next year’s Paris Olympics has spread to a new sector: hotel prices.

A new report from Paris tourism showed that hotel prices will rise 314% between the summer of 2023 and next summer’s Games, somewhat similar to price hikes seen for prior Olympics and World Cups. Average prices are projected to rise from $185 per night to $765.

The increases were even steeper for better accommodations, with average prices rising 475% for three-star hotels.

“We want popular Games, but it can’t be popular Games at 700 euros a night,” Frederic Hocquard, Paris’ deputy mayor for tourism and nightlife, told Reuters. “You can’t triple the price of the rooms. Maybe you can allow a 10, 15% increase, but tripling the prices won’t work.”

The lodging issue follows several months of conflict for the Paris Olympics and its organizers, including local rioting, budget concerns, bed-bug infestations, serious corruption allegations, and controversy over alcohol restrictions — plus issues surrounding high ticket prices, ambitious event logistics, and the city’s planned treatment of its homeless during the Games.

Local officials also expect many fans to commute into Paris from various surrounding towns due to the hotel prices.

Airbnb Issues

Hocquard said the hotel price increases also will help “feed the Airbnb beast.” But the French government is expected to impose a series of new sanctions to help control that market.

Among the anticipated measures will be a new taxation structure on owners who rent their homes and heightened enforcement on the city’s 120-day-limit per year for residents renting their properties.

Lionel Messi’s heroics at last year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar helped the Argentinian win a record eighth Ballon d’Or award — and might now set even more records in the memorabilia market.

Six jerseys Messi wore during World Cup matches — including the final in which he scored two goals and converted a penalty-shootout kick — are being put up for auction by Sotheby’s, a multinational collectibles broker.

With demand for Messi booming after the World Cup and his subsequent move to MLS, Sotheby’s predicts that the collection could end up being sold at a record price of more than $10 million. Sotheby’s was responsible for selling the current most expensive piece of game-worn sports memorabilia — a Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan jersey from the 1998 NBA Finals, which netted $10.1 million in 2022.

The six Messi jerseys — all featuring Argentina’s iconic light-blue-and-white stripes — were worn by the legend during the first half of matches throughout the group stage, Round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and final in Qatar. They are being sold together, unavailable to be purchased individually — meaning any record price would be for a sports memorabilia collection, not an individual item.

Pretty In Pink

After joining MLS in July, Messi’s new Inter Miami kit became the top-selling MLS jersey in 2023.

This year, many soccer retailers and manufacturers have struggled to keep up with the immense demand for Messi jerseys, with some orders still in the works and not scheduled to ship until December.