Dive Brief:

• Amazon Web Services announced its role as the official provider of artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning for Major League Baseball on Tuesday. MLB and AWS started working together in 2015 on a player tracking and data analytics solution and video streaming services.
• The expanded partnership will support these capabilities with AI and ML to automate statistics and data collection. It will also improve fan experience and interaction across ballparks with live game analysis, data integrations in broadcasts and tailored viewing experiences in different markets and regions, according to the announcement. 
• AWS also extended its partnership with 21st Century Fox as its primary platform for brand titles and to provide ML and analytics tools; technologies for data collection and instrumentation; and infrastructure for the "vast majority" of workloads and platforms. To support more than 125 million global players, Epic Games, a leading video game company, also announced going "all-in" on AWS from cloud infrastructure to analytics, ML and containers.

Dive Insight:

The use of data analytics for player selection in the Oakland Athletics' 2002 baseball team may have felt high-tech back then, but the technical landscape of sports and entertainment today is as complex and advanced as many leading technology-based industries.

With mountains of behavior statistics to collect about players, programs, consumers and engagement levels, sports and entertainment have emerged as natural applications for everything from cloud and cybersecurity to big data analysis and AI. Leading use cases include:

• The National Football League using AWS to run a player stats platform with IoT sensors, AI and ML and bolstering network infrastructure in stadiums.
• Fox Networks Group and Starz moving to global and omnichannel experiences with cloud and data.
• The National Collegiate Athletic Association moving decades' worth of game data to Google's cloud for analysis and tournament forecasting.
• The National Hockey League partnering with SAP to bring advanced statistics and analytics to fans.
• Mercedes using big data and machine learning to win more motorsport races.

Amazon announced new or deepened partnerships with a handful of high-profile clients this year, including Verizon, Ryanair, GoDaddy and Formula 1. But Tuesday's announcements comes on the heels of No. 2 cloud provider Microsoft announcing a 5-year cloud deal and strategic partnership with Walmart, Amazon's biggest retail competitor in the U.S.

AWS' partnerships demonstrate growing use and reliance on the company's AI offerings. While some technology leaders have held Google in high esteem for its advanced capabilities in the domain, prominent and long-term partnerships with AWS for its technologies demonstrate the No. 1 cloud provider is also packing the punches.