Len Blavatnik pulls personal funding for DAZN. Seeks $500 mil from investors

[Motorcity Cobra]

DAZN, a sports streaming service owned by billionaire Len Blavatnik and led by former ESPN President John Skipper, is seeking to raise at least $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

The funds will mostly likely be used to support DAZN’s expansion efforts. The subscription service launched in Germany and Japan in 2016, entered the U.S. market in 2018 and now operates in nine countries. Earlier this year, the company doubled its monthly price in the U.S. to $20.
DAZN has spent lavishly to acquire sports broadcast rights, including a $1 billion partnership with Matchroom Boxing and a $365 million deal with boxer Canelo Alvarez, which was at the time with the richest single-athlete contract in sports history. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is working on the fundraising, according to two of the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

Up to now, DAZN’s expansion has been supported by Blavatnik, who is worth $25.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The fundraising effort may be a sign that he is no longer willing to solely carry the cost of broadcast rights.

DAZN (pronounced “da-zone”) has grown quickly by spending a lot in a short amount of time. In 2016, for example, the company quickly committed $3 billion to media rights in Japan -- including local soccer and baseball, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, all five major European soccer leagues and the Champions League.

The company declined to comment.

With many sports rights in the U.S. locked down in long-term deals, DAZN took a different tack there by trying to dominate boxing. It later added an MLB whip-around show, paying about $300 million over three years.Based in London, DAZN has been mentioned as a possible bidder for future rights to major U.S. sports leagues, including the National Football League.

DAZN began as part of Perform Group Ltd., a London-based company Blavatnik formed in 2007. Perform acted as a middleman for content, buying rights to games and data from sports teams, and packaging them for broadcasters.

The businesses were separated, and Blavatnik sold Perform earlier this year to Vista Equity Partners.

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/a...llion-for-dazn

[Vodkaholic]

Do you still owe Robbie money?

[Thuglife Nelo]

Blavatnik should hook up with Carlos Slim. Slim is a big time Canelo fan and friend! I remember Carlos Slim had a go fund me tshirt sale, raising 14 dollars for one tshirt that said ''Haymon a Betch doe!'' Shirt was sold in less than 1 sec. by a Google bot A.I. Deal was just too good!

[Monzon99]

So the pressure and motive was there for Joshua to throw the Ruiz fight, to build up a big money rematch for dazn. Because AJ vs Miller or Jennings or Parker is small potatoes. Aj vs Ruiz 2 can be massive.

[Citizen Koba]

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/a...llion-for-dazn

Interesting article, but where does it say that Blavatnik has pulled his personal funding? Not that it matters, but the closest it comes is saying:

may be a sign that he is no longer willing to solely carry the cost of broadcast rights

(my emphasis)

Which is not the same thing and makes no bones about being speculative anyway. Basically all it's saying is that he's seeking more investment... in fact the interpretation of the author is that they want to use the money to expand, which is somewhat strange given the tacit implication of your entirely misleading headline.

Have I missed something or were you trying to add a personal slant to 'assist' folk in their interpretation of the article?

[yankees7448]

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/a...llion-for-dazn

$20 a month. GTFO here. I was thinking about signing up but that's way too much money. I like Boxing but I could get Disney Plus and one of HULU/Netflix or HBO for roughly that price. No wonder people think its failing.

[Thuglife Nelo]

$20 a month. GTFO here. I was thinking about signing up but that's way too much money. I like Boxing but I could get Disney Plus and one of HULU/Netflix or HBO for roughly that price. No wonder people think its failing.

yeah but Disney Plus, HULU, Netflix or HBO don't have boxing nor do they have Q4 WAR!

speaking of plus, the average person splurges $15 a month on fast food. $20 is a paradise buy for these types!

[sicko]

Posted months ago that although he is a Billionaire he did not become one wasting his money and it does see like money is just being throw away with no real strategy or way of recouping other than maybe selling DAZN off to the highest bidder eventually which I've also joked about in the past ESPN/Disney ultimately acquiring it and turning it into ESPN+ International or something

Hopefully they can get other investors involved to keep it afloat, I like what they're trying to do and they're putting a lot of money into boxing...BUT it is going to take YEARS to get the rights to sports that can really Drive Up Subscribers especially here in the US because as much as I personally love it, boxing is NOT the sport to drive up Paid Subs here it would take the NFL and NBA to do that

[Citizen Koba]

Posted months ago that although he is a Billionaire he did not become one wasting his money and it does see like money is just being throw away with no real strategy or way of recouping other than maybe selling DAZN off to the highest bidder eventually which I've also joked about in the past ESPN/Disney ultimately acquiring it and turning it into ESPN+ International or something

Hopefully they can get other investors involved to keep it afloat, I like what they're trying to do and they're putting a lot of money into boxing...BUT it is going to take YEARS to get the rights to sports that can really Drive Up Subscribers especially here in the US because as much as I personally love it, boxing is NOT the sport to drive up Paid Subs here it would take the NFL and NBA to do that

Man. Did you read the article? MCC just straight made up the bit about Blavatnik pulling his personal funds, in fact the article speculates the funds are for additional expansion. Now don't get me wrong, I ain't a fan of any damn promotion and for all I know they might be failing or looking for an exit strategy or whatever - certainly it looks to me like they're being ridiculously profligate - all I'm saying is that this article doesn't say anything like that and the thread title is entirely misleading.

[A.K]

Panic mode flop mode