Amazon’s live sports land grab helps boost ad segment to $19.8B in Q2

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Amazon’s live sports land grab helps boost ad segment to $19.8B in Q2

While sponsored products remain the platform’s bread and butter, multisport advertisers are able to reach a high-spending audience, executives said.

Amazon advertisers that embrace a multisport strategy on the platform are driving superior performance, according to the company. Brands with a presence across multiple sports categories more than double their unduplicated reach when measured against single-sport advertisers, executives said on a call discussing Q2 earnings with investors Thursday. Multisport viewers also show 12% higher spend and make 17% more orders on Amazon, pointing to a more engaged audience.

Momentum in sports helped propel Amazon’s advertising segment to $19.8 billion in revenue for the three-month period ended June 30, up 26% year over year and above analysts estimates. While sponsored product listings remain the e-commerce giant’s largest ad offering and growth driver, Amazon is carving out a substantial foothold in the critical live sports arena, shoring up broadcast rights for leagues including the NFL, NBA, WNBA and NASCAR.

Live sports were the dominant theme at the 2026 upfronts, where TV and streaming platforms broker major ad-spending commitments for the year ahead. The Prime Video owner earlier this month wrapped its upfront negotiations, beating its volume goals and seeing YoY growth, Adweek reported.

“We see continued growth and engagement in Prime Video ads and live sports,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on the earnings call. “We introduced more than 30 new advertisers to the NBA in our first year, and inventory on ‘Thursday Night Football,’ NBA, WNBA and NASCAR all sold out.”

Non-sports content on Prime Video is also generating viewer and advertiser interest. The premiere of “Off Campus,” a romantic drama that featured partnerships with brands like Unilever’s Liquid I.V., attracted 36 million global viewers in its first 12 days on the streaming service, Jassy said. “Elle,” a prequel series to the “Legally Blonde” film franchise, launched last month with a L’Oréal Paris sponsorship and co-marketing campaign.

Beyond the content front, Amazon also touted how its artificial intelligence tools are enhancing marketing. Brands that use Amazon’s Ads Agent, which helps automate campaign setup and tasks like ad targeting, received 8% lower cost per impression and 6% lower cost per acquisition, Jassy explained. Ads Agent has expanded to 11 new countries in 2026.

Big Tech’s AI bets have come with a steep price tag, and Amazon hiked its expected capital expenditures for the year to $220 billion — $20 billion higher than previous estimates. While other platforms have received a drubbing for their deluge of AI spending this earnings season, investors seemed impressed with gains in other areas of Amazon’s business, including 36.7% YoY growth for its key cloud-computing segment in Q2.

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