DAZN

• 1. Introduction

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  DAZN signed Mexican boxer Canelo Alvarez in October 2018 to a five-year, eleven-fight contract worth at least $365 million. The deal began with a bout against Rocky Fielding for the WBA super middleweight title that December. It overtook Giancarlo Stanton's $325 million Miami Marlins contract as the richest deal for a single athlete in sport at the time.

  A deal that size traces back to a 2007 merger between two little-known firms, one built around event broadcasting and one around sports data. How did that quiet beginning grow into a broadcaster spanning much of the globe? Why does a company capable of outspending baseball's richest contract also keep losing enormous sums of money? And why have regulators in more than one European country investigated how it treats its subscribers?

• 2. Origins and Ownership

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  Premium TV Limited, an event sport broadcasting network, merged with the Inform Group, a digital sports rights agency, to create Perform Group in 2007. Access Industries, the investment group founded by Sir Len Blavatnik, holds ownership of the company, which is headquartered in London.

  Perform acquired the football news site Goal.com in February 2011, then bought sports data firms RunningBall in 2011 and Opta Sports in 2013. In 2013 it combined its United States businesses with The Sporting News to form Sporting News Media, taking a 65% stake. The Sporting News's former owner, American City Business Journals, kept the remaining 35%.

  Access Industries increased its stake in Perform Group from 42.5% to 77% in November 2014, delisting the company from the London Stock Exchange. The following month, Perform and the WTA announced a ten-year deal to jointly form WTA Media and manage the tour's rights.

  Within a few years, that same company would carry the DAZN name into Japanese football and American boxing.

• 3. Netflix for Sport

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  Perform Group struck a ten-year contract worth ¥210 billion, about $2 billion, for Japanese J.League football rights in February 2016. It replaced the league's earlier ¥5 billion deal with Sky Perfect. The league called it the largest broadcast rights deal in Japanese sporting history. All matches from the J1, J2 and J3 divisions began airing under the new DAZN brand from 2017. DAZN extended that deal to 2033 in March 2023.

  DAZN launched in Italy in August 2018, acquiring exclusive rights to 114 Serie A matches for the 2018-19 season. It later added Canadian rights to the Champions League and Europa League for that same season, replacing TSN, and Canadian Premier League rights in 2019, replacing Sportsnet and TSN under a three-year deal.

  DAZN says it broadcasts live and on-demand sport in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with key domestic rights in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain and Taiwan. That reach makes it Europe's largest digital sports broadcaster, with more than 75 programming rights. As of 2024, the company said it was approaching 20 million paid subscribers worldwide. It also kept a minority stake in the football site Goal after TPG's Integrated Media Company took majority control of it in 2020.

• 4. Boxing's New Home

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  On the 22nd of September 2018, Anthony Joshua faced Alexander Povetkin as DAZN's first boxing broadcast after the service launched in the United States. Its broadcast team included former boxer "Sugar" Ray Leonard and Brian Kenny on commentary, LZ Granderson as ringside reporter, and Michael Buffer as ring announcer.

  That same May, DAZN had signed Matchroom Boxing to an initial two-year deal with an option to extend six more years. Matchroom chairman Eddie Hearn called it a "groundbreaking deal in the history of boxing."

  On the 8th of March 2019, DAZN signed a three-year, six-fight deal with Gennady Golovkin, agreeing to broadcast two of his fights each year. The contract began with his June 2019 bout against Canadian boxer Steve Rolls, a matchup his promoter said was meant to build DAZN's Canadian subscriber base. Golovkin himself cited the broadcaster's "global vision" as a reason for signing.

  In May 2022, DAZN signed a four-event deal with KSI's Misfits Boxing, branding the cards "MF & DAZN: X Series." Three months later, the two companies launched the series in full, staging boxing matches between influencers and celebrities.

  In June 2022, DAZN struck a global broadcasting deal with Anthony Joshua, reportedly worth £100 million a year. It began with his rematch against Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia on the 20th of August, with Joshua also becoming a DAZN brand ambassador.

  In February 2026, DAZN and Matchroom extended their partnership for another five years, agreeing to broadcast thirty of the promoter's events a year through 2031.

• 5. Billions in Losses

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  DAZN's first published accounts, covering 2015, reported losses before tax of £6.81 million. Those losses grew to £77.26 million in 2016, then to £259.4 million in 2017, and past £520 million in 2018. From the 2019 financial year through the 2022 accounts, the company's pre-tax losses exceeded £1 billion every year.

  Group-level losses were later stated at $1.46 billion. DAZN Limited's 2023 accounts at Companies House were not published until the 18th of February 2025, despite being due on the 31st of December 2024.

  That losing streak came alongside fast revenue growth. In 2022, DAZN reported $2.3 billion in revenue, over 70% more than the year before, making it that year's top-grossing sports app worldwide.

• 6. Buffering and Backlash

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  The opening weekend of J.League matches on DAZN was marred by buffering and other technical problems. Founder James Rushton traveled to Japan in person to apologize for the failures.

  The Canadian launch fared no better, plagued by inconsistent stream quality, buffering, and lag behind television broadcasts. DAZN apologized for what it called "inadequate service" and said it was working to fix the problems. By October 2017, it had gone back to distributing NFL Sunday Ticket through television providers, reversing an earlier change.

  On the 4th of May 2019, a DAZN broadcast of Canelo Alvarez against Daniel Jacobs drew complaints about streaming quality and claims of biased commentary. In Spain, telecom provider Orange sought a settlement after DAZN's technical failures blocked transmission of La Liga matches to both Orange and Movistar.

  In September 2021, Italian consumer group Codacons threatened a class action lawsuit to strip DAZN of its Serie A broadcasting rights after blackout complaints. Regulator AGCOM and Italy's antitrust body both opened investigations. Sports undersecretary Valentina Vezzali said officials were "monitoring the situation so that everything can be resolved for the benefit of the users."

  DAZN suffered further technical issues on Serie A's 2022 season-opening day and was condemned by multiple politicians and the consumer group Udicon. AGCOM intervened again, prompting DAZN to apologize and offer compensation to affected customers.

  In January 2023, DAZN agreed to take urgent steps to fix its Italian service after executives met with government ministers Adolfo Urso and Andrea Abodi.

• 7. Broken Promises

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  In 2023, DAZN advertised a monthly subscription at $19.99, but locked subscribers into a twelve-month contract detailed only in the fine print. Customers were not allowed to cancel before the twelve months ended. A separate plan, called "Flexible Pass" and priced at $24.99 a month, required 30 days' notice before cancellation. The service continued, and charges applied on a pro-rata basis, through that notice period. Only the yearly subscription ended exactly when a customer canceled, regardless of timing.

  Germany's Federal Association of Consumer Organizations, known as the VZBV, sued DAZN over non-transparent contract clauses that let it make sweeping changes, including price increases. The Munich I Regional Court largely sided with the VZBV, upholding most of its complaints.

  Since partially acquiring Ligue 1 rights in 2024, DAZN owed France's LFP nearly €300 million, payable in three installments. DAZN refused to pay two-thirds of that sum, triggering a television rights crisis that remains under administrative review. The company withdrew from the Ligue 1 acquisition after only one year.

  DAZN acquired rights to Belgium's Jupiler Pro League, Challenger Pro League, Supercup and Lotto Super League in 2020, then renewed the deal for five more years. It could not reach an agreement with a cable broadband provider, leaving the competitions viewable only through the DAZN app and website, not traditional linear television. Five months into the new contract, DAZN unilaterally declared it void, despite having reacquired the rights at a 10% discount while asking distributors for 30% more.

  The company said "no company can be forced to operate at a loss, it is simply not feasible," and stopped making its monthly payments.

• 8. Beyond the Screen

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  In 2022, DAZN began diversifying beyond streaming into ticket sales, merchandise, sports non-fungible tokens, gaming and betting. That April, it launched "DAZN Bet" in the United Kingdom and partnered with Pragmatic Group to build its sports betting product. Shay Segev, DAZN's chief executive, said "the convergence of sports media and betting is the future."

  DAZN Moments, its NFT platform, launched on the 24th of March 2022 alongside the Canelo Alvarez versus Billy Joe Saunders fight, but reportedly failed to turn a profit. The service was shut down, with no further purchases or sales possible after the 30th of November 2023. Customers lost access to their Moments entirely by the 14th of March 2024.

  In September 2022, DAZN announced it would acquire sports broadcaster Eleven Group, a deal finalized in February 2023 that expanded its footprint across Asia and Europe. In December 2024, DAZN agreed to acquire Australian pay-TV provider Foxtel from News Corp Australia and Telstra in a deal worth AU$3.4 billion. The acquisition closed on the 2nd of April 2025, giving DAZN control of Foxtel's Fox Sports networks and its Kayo Sports streaming rival. As part of the sale, News Corp and Telstra took stakes of 6% and 3% in DAZN respectively.

  In February 2025, Surj Sports Investment, the sporting arm of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, agreed to invest $1 billion in DAZN. The stake amounted to less than 5% of the company. The investment came weeks after DAZN secured rights to the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. It also came after FIFA awarded the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia as the tournament's only bidder.