Sky paid British Speedway to get out of what was left of their contract to show Speedway... I presume it was much cheaper to do so than cover the remaining meetings in the agreement...

Because that's what a contract is. If I take a 2-year mobile phone contract, I still have to pay it even if I never make a phone call. However if I want to switch elsewhere they may give me a bit of discount if I want to pay it off early.

There were mitigating circumstances if you read the press release. 

No he got jail time for running a business of selling “fully loaded” firesticks, not using them. 

Yea yea if your that worried get a VPN stuck on it, millions of people in the uk use illegal firesticks , you don’t even need a firestick if you have a app TV 

Why would they have to pay to get out of the contract? As rights holders they could choose not to broadcast it.