DAZN isn’t really designed for global success. At least, that is what the company’s former chairman says.
Kevin Mayer says he thinks DAZN could be a successful company by just focusing on two territories.
“The center of gravity of DAZN is better served by being in Europe and in some parts of Asia – Japan’s a pretty big market for them,” he said at last month’s SportsPro OTT Summit in New York.
He said that when he was hired, the company’s goal was to find success across the globe. He said that wouldn’t be easy for any company to pull off because not every sports property is created equal.
“There aren’t that many global sports,” he said according to SportsPro Media. “I think the NBA is a global sport, I think [Premier League] football is a truly global sport. DAZN just did an NFL deal to take the NFL Sunday Ticket package outside the US. It’s not really a global sport.”
In the United States, the digital platform is focused on combat sports. Mayer said that he knew making the company successful would be an uphill climb without any of the country’s major leagues involved.
“Trying to come to the US and compete against ESPN and TNT, and Apple and Amazon, and all those guys, that seemed like a very difficult thing to do.”
Kevin Mayer stepped down from his role at DAZN last month. Prior to that, he spent 25 years with Disney, where he oversaw the launch of ESPN+. He also briefly served as CEO of TikTok.
He is not the first former chairman of DAZN boss to be so candid about the company’s struggles to find a foothold in the American sports market.
In 2021, John Skipper told the Sports Innovators Conference that DAZN relied too much on “passion sports” to be top of mind for American audiences.
“Until you can get the NFL, or the SEC, or the NBA on a streaming service, it’s going to be marginal in this country,” Skipper said.
