Amazon foots autumn Nations Cup bill

This year, World Rugby's Autumn Internationals were cancelled to prevent extended international travel in an already cramped season. However, rugby fans (and teams) were rewarded with a brand new Autumns Nation Cup in place of the traditional Test matches.

In rugby, a test match is an opportunity to play other non-national teams abroad, including clubs or provincial squads. These tours take place in November and December each year across the world, but the revised Autumn Nations Cup will be played between nations instead.

The competition will take place in venues in England, France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy and Wales between November 13 and December 6. To help make the Autumn Nations Cup possible, World Rugby partnered with broadcasting groups like BeIN and Amazon.

The addition of massive sponsors like Amazon Prime is a major win for the sport of rugby. Though the Autumns Nation Cup will feature teams from England, Fiji, France, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales, rugby has yet to build robust markets in places like North and South America and Asia.

Fans of the sport can usually find rugby on a sportsbook that offers major league betting options, though catching a live game on TV or following breaking news may require a bit more effort. With Amazon behind the Autumn Nations Cup, the potential for rugby to expand its popularity abroad increases.

Is Amazon Here to Stay in Rugby? As mentioned above, Amazon Prime's involvement in the Autumn Nations Cup is a much-needed boost for rugby broadcasting abroad. However, the £20 million investment from Amazon also sparked a lengthy debate on the rights to broadcast rugby and why one of the world's most powerful companies would opt in on a sport with such a limited fanbase.

Rugby is popular, but it isn't on a par with the English Premier League. Amazon could be attempting to cash in on another huge batch of Amazon Prime subscribers who are looking to stream rugby matches.

In fact, the Autumn Nations Cup won't be televised in all countries. Instead, spectators will have to tune in through services like BeIN, Sky, or, in the case of the main broadcaster, Amazon Prime. In Wales and Ireland, fans can watch certain matches on TV.

However, it's unlikely that Amazon will opt in to an extended broadcasting relationship with rugby. Prime saw an increase of 35% of its subscriptions after showing two rounds of the Premier League, which is likely connected to the corporation's interest in the Autumn Nations Cup.

Still, Amazon's involvement could offer the sport, if not just major tournaments like the Autumn Nations Cup or the Six Nations series, more power - assuming the numbers show an interest in streaming rugby on Prime.

It's possible that TV broadcasting groups could attempt to drive Amazon out by offering their own rugby content. And rugby, in turn, would be open to agreements in order to start cashing in on broadcasting rights.

Big Expectations Given this year's stunted rugby offerings and the ongoing lack of spectators at stadiums, the Autumn Nations Cup is bound to provide some much-needed action. The series will take place directly following the Six Nations Championship, which means teams will be pushed to the wire — but they'll also be out for blood.

For some groups, like the Georgian team, they'll simply be looking to prove their worth during their debut appearance. Aside from Georgia, most matches will have plenty of history fuelling them.

Fiji and Wales should provide an exciting battle given their performance during the group stage of the 2019 Rugby World Cup. France will also be looking to knock Fiji down given their loss in the 2018 Autumn Internationals faceoff.

So far, Scotland trumped Italy 28-17, but a cancelled match between France and Fiji means audiences will have to wait to see how the Melanesian team stacks up.

The most exciting matches will take place in Group A, where England, Wales, Ireland and Georgia will battle it out. An early win from Ireland 32-9 over Wales wasn't exactly the hard-fought battle fans expected, but it was closer than the 40-0 defeat England handed Georgia.