DAZN
DAZN is a British over-the-top sports streaming and entertainment platform. Founded in 2007 known as Perform Group via the merger of Premium TV Limited and Inform Group, it is owned by Access Industries, the investment group founded by Sir Len Blavatnik, and is headquartered in London, England. Shay Segev is DAZN's CEO as of January 2021. The non-executive directors are Lincoln Benet, John Gleasure, Guillaume D’Hauteville, Andrew Cramer, and Danny Townsend. Cramer's and Townsend's appointments followed DAZN's acquisition of Foxtel and Surj Sports $1 billion investment in DAZN respectively.
The DAZN platform was founded in 2015, and states it broadcasts live and on-demand sport in over 200 countries and territories worldwide. DAZN holds key domestic broadcast rights in Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan, France, Portugal, Belgium, Taiwan, the United States, and Canada. It is considered Europe's largest digital sports broadcaster, with over 75 programming rights. As of 2024, DAZN claimed to be approaching 20 million paid subscribers globally.
Outside of streaming, DAZN has expanded into in-play betting, gaming, e-commerce, merchandise, and ticketing with being originally involved in content distribution, subscription, advertising and sponsorship, and technology and production and also owns a significant minority stake in the leading football portal Goal after TPG's Integrated Media Company acquired a majority stake in 2020.
History
Formation and launch of the DAZN platform (2007–2018)
Perform Group was created in 2007 through the merger of Premium TV Limited, an event sport broadcasting network, and the Inform Group, a digital sports rights agency.In February 2011, Perform acquired Goal.com. In 2011 and 2013 the company bought sports data companies RunningBall and Opta Sports respectively.
In 2013, Perform Group combined its U.S. businesses with The Sporting News to form Sporting News Media, in which it took a 65% stake. The Sporting News' former owner American City Business Journals retained 35%.
Perform Group was de-listed from the London Stock Exchange in November 2014 when Access Industries increased its stake in the company from 42.5% to 77%.
In December 2014, Perform and the WTA announced a 10-year media deal, under which they would jointly form WTA Media to manage and distribute its media rights. In February 2016, Perform Group and the FIBA announced a partnership to distribute and sell broadcasting rights to its basketball competitions.
In February 2016, Perform Group announced its acquisition of exclusive worldwide media rights to Japanese J.League football under a 10-year, ¥210 billion contract, succeeding the league's ¥5 billion deal with SKY Perfect. Under the new contract, all matches from the three J.League divisions would be broadcast under its new DAZN brand from 2017. The league described the contract as the largest broadcast rights deal in the history of Japanese sport. In March 2023, DAZN extended its deal with J.League to 2033.
In August 2016, Perform Group launched DAZN in Austria, Germany, Japan and Switzerland. It was described by media at the time as being the "Netflix for sport".
In July 2017, DAZN announced that it would expand into Canada, after having acquired over-the-top streaming rights to the National Football League in Canada, including NFL Game Pass and access to NFL RedZone. In August 2017, the company reached a deal to sublicense content from beIN Sports Canada, including selected UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches, as well as other international sports rights. On 20 November 2017, DAZN acquired Canadian rights to International Basketball Federation events.
In February 2018, DAZN sub-licensed Japanese rights to the B.League, Nippon Professional Baseball, La Liga, and the Premier League from Softbank.
In February 2018, DAZN acquired Canadian broadcast rights to the 2018 Commonwealth Games and subsumed Major League Soccer's digital out-of-market service MLS Live — with live and on-demand streaming of matches featuring U.S. teams. Roku support was also added that month. In March, DAZN reached a syndication deal to carry content from Pac-12 Network on the service in Canada.
In May 2018, DAZN announced that it had acquired exclusive Canadian rights to the UEFA Champions League and Europa League, beginning in the 2018–19 season and replacing TSN. In April 2019, DAZN announced that it had acquired Canadian rights to the Premier League, replacing Sportsnet and TSN, under a three-year deal.
US expansion, combat sports launch and corporate restructure (2018)
In May 2018, DAZN announced its expansion into the United States and the signing of a broadcasting deal with Matchroom Boxing. The deal with Matchroom was signed for an initial two years with the option for a six-year extension. Matchroom’s Chairman, Eddie Hearn, said that the deal was a "groundbreaking deal in the history of boxing".In the same month, former ESPN president John Skipper joined as executive chairman of Perform Group. He later became the first chief executive officer of DAZN.
In June 2018, DAZN announced a five-year streaming rights deal with the Viacom-owned mixed martial arts promotion Bellator and included the U.S. and all other regions currently served by DAZN. The rights include seven exclusive events per-year, as well as all events televised by Paramount Network.
DAZN officially launched in the U.S. in September 2018, ahead of its first boxing event of Anthony Joshua vs Alexander Povetkin on 22 September. Its launch content also included the World Boxing Super Series, as well as the AFC Champions League, the Chilean Primera Division, J-League and other content. DAZN's broadcast team for its U.S. boxing events is led by "Sugar" Ray Leonard and Brian Kenny on play-by-play, with LZ Granderson as ringside reporter, and Michael Buffer as ring announcer. Buffer appeared in a U.S. marketing campaign for the service, contrasting its business model to pay-per-views.
In September 2018, DAZN's parent company Perform Group underwent a reorganization, with its sports data business spun into a second company known as Perform Content retained as DAZN Group and was later reported that this was in preparation for a potential sale of the latter in order to help fund the DAZN operations.
In October 2018, DAZN announced that it had signed a five-year, 11-fight deal with Mexican boxer Canelo Álvarez valued at a minimum of $365 million, beginning with his then-upcoming bout against Rocky Fielding in December for the WBA super middleweight title. Álvarez was previously aligned with HBO, which had announced that it would discontinue boxing broadcasts. The contract overtook Giancarlo Stanton's $325 million contract with the Miami Marlins as the highest-valued contract with a single athlete in sport known at the time.
In November 2018, Major League Baseball announced a three-year content partnership with DAZN, which includes on-demand highlights, and ChangeUp—a live nightly studio program featuring look-ins and analysis. Just before the start of the 2020 season, DAZN cancelled MLB-related programming due to financial stresses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In December 2018, DAZN was estimated to be worth £3 billion: it was described by the Evening Standard as one of the United Kingdom's few tech "unicorns".
European and Asian launch (2018–2020)
DAZN launched in Italy in August 2018, with an acquisition of exclusive rights to 114 Serie A matches beginning in the 2018–19 season and other domestic rights on launch including the European Rugby Champions Cup, Showtime Championship Boxing, UFC programming, and the World Rally Championship. In September, DAZN announced that in order to improve the accessibility of its Serie A rights, it would begin to offer a subscription-based linear channel on Sky Italia's satellite service.In January 2019, DAZN acquired the rights to broadcast the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in Canada and the United States. In March 2019, DAZN doubled its U.S. monthly cost, but also introduced a new yearly option at a discount.
DAZN launched in Spain in February 2019, becoming its eighth market. The service went live with a roster of exclusive premium sport content including MotoGP, Moto 2 and Moto3, EuroLeague, EuroCup and Premier League. Other rights included FA Cup, EFL Cup, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana, EFL Championship, UFC, Golden Boy, Matchroom Boxing and PDC Darts.
On 8 March 2019, DAZN signed a three-year, six-fight deal with Gennady Golovkin, under which it would broadcast two fights per-year. The contract also includes two cards per-year from Golovkin's GGG Promotions beginning in 2020. The deal began with his June 2019 bout against Canadian boxer Steve Rolls. Golovkin's promoter explained that the choice of a Canadian boxer was intended to help encourage DAZN subscriptions in the country. Golovkin cited the broadcaster's "global vision" as an influence on the decision. On 13 March 2019, DAZN re-organised the Perform Media division into DAZN Media with handling of advertising and sponsorship sales for DAZN's global operations, including the "DAZN+" program, and DAZN Player, the group's syndicated video content service.
In April 2019, DAZN premiered a new show, Da Pull Up, hosted by Akin "Ak" Reyes and Barak Bess, and premiered the first episode of 40 Days - docuseries chronicling the lead-up to Canelo Álvarez's bout against Daniel Jacobs.
In May 2019, the service announced an expansion into Brazil as its ninth market, acquiring rights to the Copa Sudamericana and Campeonato Brasileiro Série C, and other international football competitions among other properties.
In July 2019, DAZN also reached a syndication deal with Eurosport in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Spain, allowing DAZN subscribers to access live and on-demand sports programming from Eurosport in these regions. In addition, DAZN sub-licensed 45 Bundesliga matches from Eurosport in Germany and Austria over the next two seasons — with 39 exclusive to the service.
In July 2019, former Indianapolis Colts punter and WWE personality Pat McAfee signed a content deal with DAZN, which added television simulcasts of his podcast and The Pat McAfee Show to the service, as well as contributions to shoulder content for DAZN's NFL rights. DAZN and McAfee terminated their broadcast partnership in May 2020.