Amazon is adding augmented reality to its football coverage on Prime in a bid to improve engagement among younger viewers.
Prime Vision, which features AR data graphics and tactical analysis, will make its UK debut tonight (16 September) as part of the UEFA Champions League match between Tottenham and Villarreal.
Viewers will be able to toggle the feature to see metrics such as running speeds, jump heights and passing options. Shots on target will show ball speed and goal probability, while a constant, Football Manager-style radar at the bottom of the screen tracks every player’s position. A ‘momentum bar’ indicates which team is in control and most likely to score next.
The result is a broadcast that looks increasingly like a video game, and that’s no accident. Andrew Hornett, Prime Video’s director of live sports product for Europe, acknowledged the influence of video games on the strategy and said Prime Video had been ‘developed by gamers’.
Growing up with games like EA FC (formerly FIFA) and Madden has trained younger fans to expect a stimulating stream of information and instant access to stats. In contrast, the comparative calm of live football can feel slow. An AR-toggle bridges that gap, increasing younger viewers’ engagement for the broadcast without alienating older viewers used to more passive viewership — at least that’s the thinking.
Sports fans in general are a notoriously data-hungry bunch. IBM’s 2025 Sports Survey, published last month, analysed 20,000 sports fans across 12 countries and found that 90% of fans consume sports content beyond merely watching games. More than half (51%) of those surveyed turn to highlights to stay connected, and 73% use a dedicated mobile app to stay up-to-date on their favourite teams. Younger viewers unsurprisingly are spearheading these trends.
That makes them prone to second-screen syndrome, diverting precious attention away from the broadcast. Indeed, the same IBM study found 28% of sports fans typically use two or more devices when watching a game. The challenge for broadcasters is to provide the information fans want in real time so they aren’t tempted to look elsewhere.
Amazon is not alone in this strategy. Spain’s top football division La Liga has featured AR in its coverage for the last few seasons, albeit without viewer ability to toggle on or off. Data-heavy Sky Sports and TNT have long used inserted graphics to enhance studio analysis and are both currently trialling ‘ref cam’ to allow closer, more engaging footage of the action that mimics views offered within games.
As always, it’s America that’s leading the way. Football, hockey and basketball broadcasts already make heavy use of AR. Apple’s Vision Pro headset pushed the concept further this year with its Tabletop feature, letting subscribers watch games on a 3D-rendered basketball court.
Amazon’s Prime Vision itself has been part of US NFL coverage since 2022, winning an Emmy for Outstanding Digital Innovation this year. The company credits the feature with helping make its NFL audience an average of seven years younger than those watching on traditional cable.
Beyond its debut tonight, Amazon’s long-term goal is to let viewers control exactly which graphics and data they see, finally delivering the level of personalisation and interactivity Xbox-trained fans expect in a striking reversal of the old order. Where games once strived to replicate television, it is now television that borrows from the games.
