On Monday, Andy Jassy became the second person to ever hold the job of Amazon CEO.
The self-described “big sports fan” took over for Jeff Bezos and now leads a company that has become integral to the U.S. economy and the sports broadcasting ecosystem.
Amazon will pay $1 billion annually from 2022-2033 for exclusive rights to “Thursday Night Football” and also streams Premier League, Champions League, New York Yankees games, and French Open contests.
Jassy — who made $35.8 million last year, mostly in stock grants — developed one of the most profitable parts of the company: Amazon Web Services. That business is at the core of Amazon’s cloud computing services, which were estimated in 2020 to hold nearly 41% of the market in that sector.
AWS, which brought in $13.5 billion in net sales in Q1 2021, provides data and computation services to:
- The NFL and NHL
- PGA Tour
- Bundesliga
- Formula 1 and NASCAR
Jassy is a minority owner of the NHL’s incoming team, the Seattle Kraken. Amazon holds the naming rights to the Kraken’s Climate Pledge Arena. The WNBA’s Seattle Storm play there as well.
On July 20, Bezos, who will remain executive chairman of Amazon, will take a trip into space aboard the first manned space flight by his rocket company, Blue Origin.
