Amazon Prime’s TNF debut brings live betting delays to forefront

Amazon Prime TNF

Streaming, like everything else, has its pros and cons. Of course streaming is easily accessible everywhere and doesn’t require a cable subscription. 

 

However, that is a problematic thing for sports bettors for one reason and one reason only. 

 

Latency, or delays in the video. 

 

Live betting makes up a large chunk of betting nowadays and bettors will be further behind the action than usual during tonight’s premier of Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime. As it stands right now, sportsbooks are already ahead of the television broadcast on cable, meaning they will have even more of an advantage tonight with the stream expected to be at least 30 seconds behind the live feed. 

 

A lot can happen in 30 seconds, which could hurt bettors and bettors’ wallets depending on how sportsbooks handle this. People will often wager on games with emotion and with what their eyes are telling them, which could be a vastly different story than what is being presented inside GEHA Field. 

 

For example, what might happen if the Chargers have first and goal from the Chiefs five-yard-line but then quarterback Justin Herbert’s pass is intercepted, is anyone’s guess. It’s hard to deny the fact that many wagers will be at the mercy of the sportsbooks tonight, so proceed with caution. 

 

FanDuel’s CCO Mike Raffensperger even echoed those thoughts in a series of tweets back in August, which mentioned the issues latency will cause for live betting. 

With Amazon Prime now partnered with DraftKings as an official sponsor of Thursday Night Football, it will be particularly intriguing to see how they manage the streaming delays, with bets such as “Next QB pass: Complete or incomplete,” expected to be among the offerings. 

 

Regardless, bettors might want to use tonight’s game as a test run to see whether live betting will be a viable option moving forward or whether that will be off the table until the latency concerns are figured out. 

 

At the very least, fans will be treated not only to a good game, but also some great commentary as well with Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit making their debuts in the Amazon booth.

author
Nick Brinkerhoff
Sports Journalist
Hello there, I’m Nick Brinkerhoff, a New Jersey native with enough sarcasm and attitude to show I’m not from New York. Despite being Jersey born and bred, I’m a diehard New York sports fan (Jets, Nets, Rangers, Mets) who has seen plenty of losing, but my sports betting ability will hopefully continue to balance those scales. I have season tickets to the Jets but believe it to be more character building than bad asset management. Althoug
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