Pay-per-view golf FAIL: Bleacher Report Live streamed Tiger/Phil match for free due to technical difficulties

Due to the inability for Turner Sports's Bleacher Report Live (B/R Live) sports streaming service to allow everyone who had paid to stream the Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson exhibition golf match yesterday because of a technical glitch affecting the purchase function of the B/R Live streaming service, B/R Live ended up providing the Tiger/Phil match for free to anyone with an internet connection:

BREAKING: Source says Turner execs decided to give Phil-Tiger match away for free on B/R Live streaming platform (instead of $20 charge) when purchase function broke down to point where those who bought had trouble getting in.

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) November 23, 2018

While the Tiger/Phil match itself was a classic, with Phil winning the match after four extra holes were needed to decided a winner, the match was a total disaster for Turner Sports and their B/R Live sports streaming service. The business model of the Tiger/Phil match as it relates to the B/R Live streaming service is that it was the internet equivalent of pay-per-view television: people were supposed to pay $20 in exchange for the ability to view an internet stream of the Tiger/Phil match. However, because the function of the B/R Live application that allows people to pay money (in this case, $20) to unlock access to the stream of the Tiger/Phil match failed to the point that some people who paid to stream the Tiger/Phil match had trouble accessing the stream, executives for Turner Sports ended up allowing anyone with an internet connection to access the B/R Live stream of the Tiger/Phil match for free, presumably resulting in a loss of revenue for Turner Sports and B/R Live.