From Signal Iduna Park to Thursday Night Football, Boardroom takes a look at how Amazon’s tech is changing how leagues connect with fans worldwide.
For modern sports leagues, global growth demands more than talent on the field — it requires tech that can scale worldwide.
Boardroom took a trip to Germany for Amazon‘s Delivering the Future event, a showcase of how the company’s technologies are shaping the next era of sports, entertainment, and its internal innovation across various regions.
Amazon Web Services‘ partnership with the Bundesliga is one example of that work. Since 2020, the Bundesliga has partnered with AWS to reimagine how fans engage with the sport. Boardroom got to see this partnership in action at Signal Iduna Park, the largest stadium in the Bundesliga with a capacity of 81,365. Home to Borussia Dortmund, it’s best known for the Yellow Wall, a south stand that packs in 25,000 standing fans, making it the largest free-standing grandstand in Europe. From deafening chants to choreographed cheers, the energy inside this stadium is as iconic as the club itself.
And it’s not just about what happens inside the stadium. The Bundesliga App, powered by AWS, now serves millions of fans globally with real-time data, video content, and personalized recommendations, including its newest feature, Bundesliga Shorts, a vertical video hub built to meet mobile-first fan behavior.
Zooming out: AWS isn’t just powering Bundesliga innovation — it’s playing a growing role in global sports.
But the real opportunity lies in expansion.
As the NFL pushes deeper into international markets — with games now held in London, Germany, and soon Madrid — AWS provides the scalable tech backbone to meet fans where they are. From real-time data feeds and cloud broadcasting to athlete safety modeling and global content delivery, AWS already has the international footprint to support the NFL’s growth play.
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In 2019, AWS became the NFL’s official cloud and machine learning provider, powering innovations like Next Gen Stats, Digital Athlete, and cloud-based content workflows. These tools deliver predictive analytics and player tracking that elevate everything from in-game decision-making to fantasy football, while also advancing player safety and fan engagement.
“Next Gen Stats tells more than the score — it shows the story behind every play,” Aaron Amendolla, Deputy CIO of the NFL, said during the AI in Sports panel during the welcome reception. “A 3% win probability pass that turns into a game-winning touchdown? That’s the storytelling power of data.”
Through the Digital Athlete platform, the NFL simulates real-world scenarios — like changes to equipment, warm-up routines, or even rule adjustments — to understand how they might impact player health and injury risk. Read more about the Digital Athlete here.
Amendolla said that with AWS, the NFL isn’t just engaging fans — it’s meeting them where they are, whether that’s on streaming platforms or inside international stadiums. One prominent example is Thursday Night Football on Prime Video. AWS powers not just the cloud infrastructure but also alternate viewing formats like Prime Vision—a broadcast experience enhanced with real-time data overlays and predictive analysis.
The league is also leveraging AI to train new staff, enhance live broadcasts, and personalize experiences for every type of fan, from first-timers to diehards.
The level of personalization and real-time analysis needed across sports wouldn’t be possible without AI. As Julie Souza, AWS’s Global Head of Sports, put it: “A single Bundesliga match emits 3.6 million points of data. The NFL season? Over 500 million. Formula 1? 1.1 million per second. No human team can process that— AI is essential.”
From game-day broadcasts to behind-the-scenes operations, AI helps producers, engineers, and editors turn massive data sets into meaningful moments, not to replace human creativity, but to enhance it.
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