What do the white dashes above team names mean on Amazon’s Premier League coverage?

The broadcaster has unveiled new graphics for the 2023/24 Premier League season

Amazon Prime is one of the Premier League’s broadcast partners (Getty Images)

Viewers in the United Kingdom tuning in to midweek Premier League action would have noted fresh graphics on Amazon Prime Video’s coverage of the English top flight.

The first round of the season broadcast by Amazon sees 10 games across three days shown live on the streaming platform.

Along with this week’s fixtures, the subscription service will also show the Boxing Day round of Premier League fixtures, which take place on 26, 27 and 28 December.

The broadcaster unveiled a number of new presenters and pundits, including former Soccer Saturday front-man Jeff Stelling, ahead of their coverage, but it was a new on-screen graphic above the scoreboard that caught the eye of some watchers during the two live games on Tuesday 5 December.

At kick off, five white dashes appeared above the three letter codes denoting the names of the team involved.

These represent the number of substitutes available to each manager, with a dash removed after each change is made.

Premier League clubs used to be allowed to make three changes in each match, but are now permitted to make five each after a rule change ahead of last season.

These can, however, only be made on three different occasions, with an extra opportunity at half-time if desired.

The Premier League partnered with Amazon on an initial three-season deal from 2019, before an extension was agreed through to the end of the 2024/25 season.

That will mark the end of the partnership for the time being, though, with Sky Sports and TNT Sports securing the UK broadcasting rights from the 2025/26 season onwards.