DAZN has announced it is acquiring Eleven Groups sports media businesses, including its streaming service Eleven Sports. The transaction will see DAZN become the broadcaster of the top football leagues in Portugal and Belgium. Eleven Sports also had a presence in Taiwan, along with other Southeast Asian markets, and DAZN believes the move will give it a greater foothold in the region, mentioning that it already has a “market leading” business in Japan.
According to DAZN, the geographical expansion enabled by the agreement will give it new audiences as it “builds out its global platform and becomes a one-stop shop for everything a sports fan wants.” This goal includes offering the largest library of live and on-demand sports content, analysis, highlights, merchandise, ticketing, gaming and betting.
Additionally, the acquisition of Eleven Sports will mean integrating the 40,000 football matches the service currently streams every year, and will give DAZN the largest portfolio of women’s football matches of any service in the world. DAZN currently broadcasts the UEFA Women’s Champions League, Liga F in Spain, the English FA Women’s Super League and the Women’s FA Cup, among others.
Shay Segev, CEO, DAZN Group, said: “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.”
Marc Watson, CEO Eleven Group, said: “We see DAZN as the future of digital sports broadcasting and the ideal home for ELEVEN. Sport is global entertainment and joining with DAZN will be transformative, allowing us to access greater economies of scale and a global platform for our talented team. We couldn’t be more excited about this deal, and I’m really looking forward to working with Shay and the team at DAZN.”
