On Tuesday, sports streaming service DAZN announced a nine-figure, multi-year rights deal with Bellator MMA. The agreement pairs with the OTT platform’s previous foray into boxing to create a fight sports destination in advance of DAZN’s U.S. launch this September.
The Perform Group-owned DAZN will carry 22 Bellator MMA events—seven exclusive to the service and 15 simulcast with Paramount Network—beginning on Sept. 29. That first fight card will be headlined by the fourth meeting between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Wanderlei Silva, a middleweight title fight between Gegard Mousasi and Rory MacDonald, and the beginning of the inaugural Welterweight World Grand Prix, an eight-fighter, single-elimination tournament.
“Bellator is a great franchise that has been developing over the past few years as a challenger to UFC, backed by Viacom,” said Perform Group CEO Juan Delgado. “With us getting behind it, we’re looking to supercharge Bellator in the sense of creating a set of exclusive fights on DAZN.”
DAZN (pronounced “Da Zone”) is a monthly subscription service already in operation in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, and Japan. The network announced its intentions to enter the U.S. market back in May with a headline-grabbing $1 billion investment that, with the help of Matchroom Boxing, aims to centralize the infrastructure of boxing in this country. That deal will lead to the creation of 16 U.S. fights nights per year (as well as 16 per year organized in the U.K.). DAZN subsequently added the second season of the World Boxing Super Series to its lineup.
Delgado said the aim of this new deal is to provide Bellator with the support to recruit top fighters and develop young talent to equip the franchise to compete head to head with UFC. Delgado called UFC “a great franchise,” but added that “there are opportunities out there.”
“Ultimately, it comes around to the exposure that you’re getting as a fighter, obviously the payout you’re getting as a fighter, and the tender love and care that you’re getting as a fighter,” he said, referring to the prospect of endorsement deals.
As for the company’s broader plans for the U.S. market, DAZN CEO James Rushton has talked about the need to establish name recognition. “We’ve got to be famous at stuff,” he said earlier this month. The broadcast rights of the major pro leagues are mostly locked up for several years in the U.S., so the company’s plan is prove its infrastructure in other sports first.
“What we can do now is build a foothold in what we still see as interesting verticals—fight sports being one of them,” Delgado said. “We want to be in a position where, if the NFL is considering an OTT partner for any of its packages, we are not starting from zero, we’ve got a customer base and can show them a path to growth. But it’s so far out that we’re worried about the immediate opportunity, which is still interesting.”
DAZN already airs NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL content in other markets, including in Canada where the service debuted with the NFL Sunday Ticket. That particular launch was beset by some technical issues, with a number of irate football fans taking to social media. DAZN’s director of product for new markets and strategic initiatives, Marcus Parnwell, addressed some of the particulars in an interview with Mobile Syrup. Delgado also acknowledged that there were issues but said they’ve been resolved.
“We’ve addressed the product issues, we’ve addressed the latency, we’ve addressed the quality issues when you put it up on a big-screen TV,” Delgado said. “The U.S. consumer can be assured that that’s not going to happen.”
DAZN’s market research has identified 49 million general boxing fans in the U.S. (and 10 million hardcore fans) as well as 51 million MMA fans. The crossover is about 35 million, which the service hopes to attract with its monthly payment plan and lack of long-term commitment. The plan’s cost for consumers comes in at a much more affordable price point than expensive pay-per-view cards. (DAZN has not yet settled on a price point for its U.S. service, but for comparison’s sake, its monthly cost in Canada is CA$20 (about $15) and €9.99 (about $12) in Germany.)
As for growth beyond fight sports in the U.S., Delgado said there are some interesting categories that pair well with fight sports. Boxing remains popular with Hispanic fans, for instance, and Delgado hinted that there is another complementary sport DAZN would pursue: soccer. “You know where I’m going with this, there’s a big tournament going on right now in that sport,” he said. (The biggest tournament taking place right now is the 2018 FIFA World Cup.)
“You can see how you can complement a very big subscriber acquisition strategy around fight sports with a component of other sports that either looks to keep those fight sports subscribers engaged in the platform and therefore recurring customers,” Delgado said.