The live streaming disruptor will substantially boost its sports rights portfolio through this latest acquisition
Global sports platform DAZN has announced it will purchase rival provider Eleven Sports in a deal worth an undisclosed fee. This purchase will see DAZN pick up a raft of new sports properties, including some key football competitions in their domestic markets.
By buying Eleven Sports, DAZN will increase its relevance in both European and Asian markets. It will pick up its rival's contracts to show the Jupiler Pro League in Belgium, the Liga Portugal Bwin in Portugal and several other elite leagues around the world.
The deal will see DAZN grow in Poland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other European and Asian territories, and become a much more attractive proposition for potential subscribers around the world.
DAZN will also takeover Eleven Sports' social media company Team Whistle via this agreement.
Shay Segev, Chief Executive of DAZN, remarked of the deal:
“The acquisition adds scale to our business. It is a big step forward in our mission to be the leading global sports platform."
“DAZN has invested in building a revolutionary digital sports platform, where fans can enjoy the full range of interactive sport entertainment. We are looking forward to expanding these capabilities to new markets as well as leveraging Eleven’s capabilities in DAZN.”
The company's chairman, Kevin Mayer, added:
“This deal marks an acceleration of our strategy to diversify our offerings and leverage our fantastic sports properties and our platform into new markets and business models,”
“Team Whistle is a growing business that has a proven track record in monetising short form content. It will be hugely valuable to DAZN as we look to generate the maximum value from our enviable rights portfolio, creating new formats of content to reach new audiences and generate powerful incremental revenue streams.”
It is not yet clear the financial implications of the deal, but early projections from DAZN estimate that the acquisition will boost its annual revenues by $300m.
Another fascinating part of the deal will see the company's founder, and the owner of Leeds United, Andrea Radrizzani join the DAZN board as an executive director.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval, but is all but guaranteed to happen at this point.
Financial details have not been disclosed but DAZN predicts the acquisition will boost revenues by US$300 million a year. It has also been confirmed that Eleven founder Andrea Radrizzani will join DAZN’s board as an executive director once the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is completed.
This successful acquisition by DAZN shows that the company is moving on from its failed plot to buy BT Sport earlier this year. The firm envisages a future platform playing host to all major elite sport, a "Netflix of sports", and this purchase of Eleven Sports, while it doesn't completely fulfil that aim, moves DAZN one step closer to achieving that very difficult feat.
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