Years ago, Eddie Hearn was boasting a lot about a billion dollar type deal for the Boxing sector.
Now, a billionaire just gave about 4 billion dollars to get DAZN out of debt.
Sounds like DAZN has been struggling to stay afloat all around including the Boxing sector.
Do you think DAZN is delivering well regarding Boxing events? Will they stay around for long? Do you think they will get more names in their roster with this new injection of revenue?
Your thoughts.
You've got to remember that Hearn isn't DAZN. He provides content to DAZN under a contract.
If Hearn carried on with Sky then who would DAZN go to? The fact Sky have gambled with Boxxer should show us they didn't have too many viable options.
There isn't room in the sport for that many major promoters.
Hearn has a big contract with DAZN. That's great for boxing and it's great for Matchroom. We should appreciate the money DAZN is putting into the fight game.
Is Hearn delivering? Well he still has a massive contract. So I guess he is to some extent.
Yeah, I mean it's obvious hearn ISN'T DAZN.
DAZN is and HAS BEEN DAZN WITHOUT Hearn. Like you said, Hearn has a contract WITH DAZN.
I agree though that He has delivered FOR DAZN to an extent but thepoint here it seems it has been to a very MINIMAL extent.
I am quite interested to see how this evolves for Boxing though.
Nah I don’t use any social media mate, I’m admittedly a bit of a dinosaur in that regard.
Hmm, how about contact me via email- reneman00@gmail.com
Hope to hear from you soon my friend.
Wow, that sounds really accurate. And I think that is EXACTLY what is going on man.
Sad case and Hearn seems simply not deliver in all those points you explained. He is delivering a little with Canelo, but with all the other fighters he is not because of their medicore opponents.
You've got to remember that Hearn isn't DAZN. He provides content to DAZN under a contract.
If Hearn carried on with Sky then who would DAZN go to? The fact Sky have gambled with Boxxer should show us they didn't have too many viable options.
There isn't room in the sport for that many major promoters.
Hearn has a big contract with DAZN. That's great for boxing and it's great for Matchroom. We should appreciate the money DAZN is putting into the fight game.
Is Hearn delivering? Well he still has a massive contract. So I guess he is to some extent.
For the record, dazn have not spent anywhere close to those figures in boxing. remember his deal with matchroom was a 10 yr deal and only 3 yrs in, we havent seen eddie spent a big chunk of it with the whole covid situation.
the reason behind 'paper debts' is because they spent a lot of money aquiring rights fees but in addition to that, that debt is a paper debt because it's money owed to the owner/perform group/blavatnik. However, you can literally inflate those figures at will anytime you like.
roman abramovic is worth a lot less than blatanik and has spent a lot more on chelsea fc as a hobby...so i doubt dazn is going anywhere.
Yeah I got a You Tube channel dedicated to Boxing analysis and commentary. Hey do you have IG?
Would love to have you on the panel to talk about DAZN and it's possible future in the Boxing market.
Nah I don’t use any social media mate, I’m admittedly a bit of a dinosaur in that regard.
...OK?
The hope is that the APP can eventually turn a profit and pay for/fund itself, it is not for Billionaires to continue to fund it and bail it out with their own money. Boxing alone is not popular enough to build them the Subscription Base they desire. Need the rights to Premier (which they just lost the rights to in Canada to FuboTV) and sports that are far more popular than Boxing
Exactly!
That's one reason why I posted this topic.
Seems like DAZN Boxing is in a desperate position for the fact that a Billionaire had to invest billions more for DAZN to stay afloat. Bad look
...OK?
The hope is that the APP can eventually turn a profit and pay for/fund itself, it is not for Billionaires to continue to fund it and bail it out with their own money. Boxing alone is not popular enough to build them the Subscription Base they desire. Need the rights to Premier (which they just lost the rights to in Canada to FuboTV) and sports that are far more popular than Boxing
What platform do you use? YouTube? I have debated starting a podcast or something in the past. I’m not a tech guy whatsoever though, wouldn’t really know how to go about it. It’s finding the time as well tbh.
Yeah I got a You Tube channel dedicated to Boxing analysis and commentary. Hey do you have IG?
Would love to have you on the panel to talk about DAZN and it's possible future in the Boxing market.
Wow, I would love to have you on my channel breaking all this down on a show. Very interesting input man
What platform do you use? YouTube? I have debated starting a podcast or something in the past. I’m not a tech guy whatsoever though, wouldn’t really know how to go about it. It’s finding the time as well tbh.
"Maybe they thought boxing could be a foot in the door into securing deals for other sports."
I think this is the answer, from the DAZN perspective. Early on they were actively trying to add whatever they could in the American market, boxing was the tool they were going to use to introduce themselves to the American audience and then build from there. But it was always going to be near impossible to obtain any of the major American sports and getting a little slice of one of those wouldn't do much either. Sadly, they probably won't last much longer. I subscribe as a hardcore boxing fan, but I realize I am one of a couple hundred people that will sit there and watch an entire Matchroom Italy show. I actually think to survive (in the US at least) they need to embrace branding themselves as a sort of "world sports platform" and grab the international rights to as many things as they can. They are never getting NFL, NBA or MLB, it just won't happen. But they can grab other niche audiences by trying to get things like tennis, golf, formula 1 and mainly soccer. Nobody in the US is tuning in for darts and bowling, but I would be trying to grab rights to as many soccer leagues as possible. Soccer's popularity is massively rising now in the US, with all the kids that actually played growing up now becoming adults and parents and the knowledge of the game here is starting to increase as well, thanks to the impact of the Premier League in the late 90s and 2000s. Add on to that, loads of Americans finally starting to play in different leagues all around the world and this is content that will have a high ceiling going forward.
If I'm DAZN I'm pushing for as many of those leagues as I can get, even if you have to start with things like the Scottish Premiership and Brazilian Serie A and Austrian Bundesliga and eventually try to work you way up to acquiring the top leagues. This is the only sport that I can see in the US that doesn't have major rights locked up in one or 2 en****** AND that will see increased viewership in the coming decades. Think it's their only shot, boxing will never be more than a niche audience in the US again unfortunately, so it is what it is.
Man I love reading your responses!!
This is why I post things so i can read VERY educated breakdowns like this!!
That’s a great question. Naivety maybe? Maybe they thought boxing could be a foot in the door into securing deals for other sports? Or maybe they just badly overvalued the assets they were acquiring? I honestly don’t know.
Another thing I’d add though is boxing’s appeal can be deceptive. There is big money in boxing but only for a very small minority of fighters. Maybe DAZN’s sample size was far too small when analysing the metrics of the sport. Superstars like Canelo, GGG, AJ don’t reflect the true market value of the sport.
Wow, I would love to have you on my channel breaking all this down on a show. Very interesting input man
They’re not delivering the premium events needed to attract consistent subscribers and fighters are being crazily overpaid that’s why they’re losing money from a boxing perspective. I doubt they’ve turned a profit on anybody not named Canelo. Hearn clearly lacked understanding and knowledge of the US market and his decision making reflects that. Without the Sky juggernaut protecting him, he’s essentially just a mouth for hire.
Hearn essentially just picked up fighters nobody else wanted like Andrade, Haney, Farmer etc and stupidly paid them inflated guarantees. They were never going to recoup on those deals and the only other genuine stars they did sign like GGG were being paid millions due to huge guarantees to fight guys like Rolls and Szeremeta. That’s financial suicide.
I don’t want to sound anti-DAZN here because I do like the DAZN concept but it’s not sustainable. Boxing is far too niche to be your premier product. People will subscribe for Canelo and maybe Joshua how do you retain them for the other 9 months? They don’t have the Premier League like Sky, the NBA like ESPN or the NFL like FOX to garner that continuous base of subscribers. Until that changes DAZN will continually be marginalised in the sports media industry. If you look at the bigger picture, Boxing simply isn’t big enough to centre a sports streaming service around. Sadly, DAZN boxing was always destined to fail.
Wow, that sounds really accurate. And I think that is EXACTLY what is going on man.
Sad case and Hearn seems simply not deliver in all those points you explained. He is delivering a little with Canelo, but with all the other fighters he is not because of their medicore opponents.
I don't think anyone would expect them to be making money with the amount they've invested recently going global and with the pandemic.
They are struggling to get sports rights in some regions though, and that's ultimately going to 'cap' the amount of subscribers they will get. In other regions they've managed to get the football etc. which means they are players there.
Its a game of patience. These dudes have billions, they have no problem investing long term - if it does end up being the Netflix of sport. But they need to get those rights.
True, but I see that happening in a very long time, long uphill battle.
But as you said, these investors are patient, they know what they are doing apparently.
I only pay $3 a month so it's not a big deal, but if the bigger fights are going to PPV then I'll be out on principle.
Hearn has previously said that it will only be the biggest fights on PPV. We'll see how that plays out.
Yeah, if the PPV model works out for DAZN, then maybe they would do more events on that and slowly do away with the subscription thing for Boxing at least.
For the American market, getting into MMA might be a decent way of gaining some traction. The loss of Bellator hurts but perhaps they could try to get streaming rights for smaller regional and international promotions. Perhaps gaining dominance in combat sports to include some niche and cheaper ones (bare knuckle, MMA, boxing, kickboxing, etc) would be an angle.
I think it will be too difficult to obtain rights on the premier leagues for baseball, football, basketball and even hockey... especially when you have en****** like Amazon and Yahoo trying get in on it as well.
Ah that is a very interesting point.
BKFC would be an amazing option for DAZN because that sport is growing rapidly as I have predicted more than a year ago (I pushed a video explaining that).
Other than that, it is going to be a huge challenge for DAZN to gain lucrative traction for profits in the American market. It looks like the fact of the matter is that DAZN is competing with AMERICAN platforms that intimately know their market WAY BETTER than DAZN and are dominating.
It's no surprise they could of been struggling with money, they have tried to deliver well and have spent a lot of money trying, they don't seem to of done badly but they could be doing better.
It seems for one reason or another they have hit alot of resistance in the American Market which can't of helped and they have just took a big hit in Europe by losing out on BT sport or what ever it was.
Ppl keep pumping money in but will want to see some turn around on investments at some point, I like what they are trying to do and I hope they succeed but if they go bad then I pull the plug on my contract.
Great input!
That's kind of how I see it. They could be doing better definitely.
Yeah I think it's been long enough for investors to get their turn around on investments but I guess they are pumping more money for another gamble.
Yeah the other platforms have definitely been competing quite well over DAZN Boxing IMHO.
We'll see what happens.
He's the primary investor in the the company that oversees DAZN so he's already committed. It's hard to say if the money is an injection of resources or just a clearing of the debt (or a mixture of both). It's definitely a show of confidence and doubling down on the DAZN venture.
The article I read stated that DAZN saw 20% revenue increase but still staggering losses. My wild guess using simple math is that buys the project a year or two to show evidence of sustainability but who knows. I imagine they will use this move to try and secure some type of sports rights that will get them closer to that goal.
Yeah, I mean if they don't increase their profits soon, and continue with staggering losses as they have for the past couple years, the future looks grim for DAZN Boxing.
That's probably exactly what's going to happen. I remember that Hearn interview where he talked about going that route. They'll definitely lose a lot of subscribers if that happens
Yeah,and if they lose a lot of subs at that point, I think that will be a wrap for DAZN Boxing
I agree slightly. But even PBC when they first came out pitched Free Boxing for all, now look at them, PPVs all around, even very low quality PPVs. If DAZN only do 3-4 PPVs pee year for major fights, and don't price them ridiculously high then I'll stick with them. Cards haven been good for the most part. I don't think we can get away from PPVs in boxing unfortunately.
But the thing here is PBC were not going to extreme claims that PPVs are dead like Hearn and Oscar were.
I definitely see your point though.