Ellie Horvath
DAZN Group, the ultimate sports destination platform, today publishes its 2022 Annual Review providing an update on its strategic priorities and critical milestones this year.
The highest grossing sports app of 2022, DAZN is live in 225 countries and territories. The global home of boxing, it is also a market-leader in Italy, Japan, DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and Spain where it holds top-tier domestic football rights including Bundesliga, LaLiga and Serie A. As part of the company’s growth ambitions and diversification strategy, DAZN is moving beyond its position as the first truly global sports streaming platform to become the daily sports destination for fans everywhere. In the future, DAZN will provide fans with everything they want and need – from the largest library of live and on-demand content to news, analysis, merchandise, ticketing, gaming and betting. This will not only deliver for DAZN customers but create value for rights holders, commercial partners, and the business.
Led by a new and highly experienced senior leadership team, with expertise spanning technology, telecommunications, entertainment, media, and sport, DAZN delivered on this vision in 2022 by expanding its presence across core and emerging markets, developing an immersive and personalised customer-focused offering, and significantly expanding its global rights portfolio.
DAZN is changing the way the world watches sport. The 2022 annual review can be found here. 2022 highlights include:
Expanding presence across core and emerging markets
- Acquisition of ELEVEN Sports puts DAZN in a leading position in major European footballing nations Portugal and Belgium, as well as expanding its presence in Southeast Asian markets.[1] This completes DAZN’s existing market-leading position in several countries and territories.
- Launching big new football rights in Spain with La Liga alongside major distribution partnerships.
- UEFA Champions League partnership is extended in Germany until 2027 including broadcast rights to over 90% of UEFA Champions League matches, ensuring DAZN remains the home of Europe’s flagship club competition in Germany.
Delivering a rich and immersive experience for DAZN customers
- Under the leadership of Mark Kemp as new DAZN Bet CEO, DAZN Bet beta is launched in the UK, Spain and Italy. The launch is part of a partnership with Pragmatic Group to refresh the casual betting market and offer customers a more recreational experience.
- E-commerce offering is launched with the DAZN Store, allowing fans to purchase exclusive DAZN branded collections and fan merchandise in Germany, Austria, Switzerland (DACH) and Japan.
- Experimentation with non-fungible tokens (NFTS) via the launch of DAZN Moments in Japan, a series of J. League NFTs, and Boxing.IO, an NFT marketplace with limited edition boxing highlights.
- Acquisition of US media entertainment company Team Whistle with its best-in-class original content portfolio and 700 million social media followers enables DAZN to reach younger audiences, drive previously off-platform consumers onto DAZN and deepen its fan engagement capabilities.
Acquiring significant global rights as part of vision to create a daily destination for all sports fans
- Agreement signed with Professional Fighters League to create PFL Europe, making the first regional league ever from a global provider of MMA when launched in 2023.
- Expansion into live extreme sports through Red Bull TV, the first linear channel to be made available globally on DAZN.
- Global broadcasting rights to leading women’s football divisions Finetwork Liga F and Frauen-Bundesliga are acquired, complementing DAZN’s existing rights partnerships with the UEFA Women’s Champions League and Japanese WE League.
- Exclusive global broadcasting rights to the UEFA Women’s Champions League sees a record-setting live cumulative viewership of 3.6 million globally for the final across DAZN, DAZN’s UWCL YouTube channel, and 11 free-to-air channels in Europe. This marks a 56% increase in audience compared to last season’s final.
Introducing a new and highly experienced senior leadership team
- Shay Segev is announced as the sole CEO of DAZN Group, Darren Waterman as Group CFO, Sandeep Tiku as CTO and Pete Oliver as CMO, strengthening the central corporate team.
- Additional hires are made across several territories as part of creation of market-led organisational structure including Stefano Azzi as CEO, Italy, Alice Mascia as CEO, DACH, Bosco Aranguren as CEO, Spain and Manabu Yamada, EVP Revenue.
Shay Segev, Chief Executive Officer, said: “The past twelve months have been a highly significant period for DAZN as we look to become the ultimate daily destination for sports fans. We have experienced healthy growth across our markets, added a significant volume of global and domestic rights to the platform, and substantially increased our revenues by adjusting our core offerings and exploring new revenue streams. Looking forward, we have a clear plan in place to deliver the next phase of DAZN’s progress. Our focus will be on making the product more accessible, removing further friction and improving customer engagement. We are excited for what the future holds.”
Kevin Mayer, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said: “DAZN Group has gone from strength to strength over the past year. Driven by a highly experienced new senior leadership team drawn from across technology, media, telecommunications, entertainment and sport, the business has proven the potential of an innovative direct-to-consumer sports offering. With these solid foundations in place, we are in a strong position as we enter 2023.”
