As far as direct payments to players, Duke is not the top spender in CBB. But they do have situations like this to give players more exposure & NIL opportunities to make more money. Thank their GM Rachel Baker for the forward thinking.
This Duke-Amazon deal has some major implications:
1) Signals Amazon is becoming aggressive competitors to traditional networks for collegiate media rights, much like it has been with pro sports
2) New NIL pipeline for Duke
3) Duke is leveraging its brand power for an independent commercial deal, something I'd expect other high-level programs to copy
4) Amazon has global reach, which can only help with exposure - especially with international pipelines thriving in college basketball