January 15 – After months of speculation, Saudi Arabia is closing in on a $1 billion investment in sports streaming platform DAZN, offering the Arab Kingdom a sports broadcasting arm and home to sports rights properties.
Bloomberg and the New York Times report that Saudi Arabia, through SURJ, an private investment firm owned by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, is close to acquiring up to a 10% stake in DAZN, the sports streaming platform owned by billionaire businessman Len Blavatnik.
In December, DAZN said it was paying about $1 billion to broadcast the expanded 32-team Club World Cup, granting FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino a lifeline for the tournament. Infantino has long courted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and in December FIFA, without a credible bidding process, awarded the 2034 World Cup to the Arab Kingdom.
It had been widely rumoured that Saudi Arabia were poised to invest in a roundabout way in the Club World Cup through a broadcast deal to bail out the tournament. Notwithstanding FIFA’s claims, interest in the Club World Cup from broadcasters has been very limited and lukewarm.
An investment in DAZN will allow Saudi Arabia influence in the sports broadcasting market, signalling the country’s growing ambitions in the sports arena. Qatar, the 2022 World Cup hosts, wielded considerable influence through BeIN Media Group, owner of BeIN Sports, in world sports and in particular in European football.
Nasser Al-Khelaifi serves as the chairman of the BeIN Media Group. He is also PSG chairman, ECA president and a UEFA executive committee member.
In recent years, the ties between DAZN and Saudi Arabia have strengthened with the platform the premium destination for the Saudi Pro League, tennis tournaments and elite boxing events.
DAZN has long held the ambition of becoming the ‘Netflix of Sports’, but despite a wide-ranging rights portfolio, the platform has never acquired a monopoly position. Last year, DAZN said the company had 300 million monthly users, but that the subscriber base has not been enough to stem major losses which now total more than $5 billion. DAZN is yet to publish its latest set of accounts.
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