Foot & Soccer Soccer Match Reports, Football News
January 15 – After months of hypothesis, Saudi Arabia is closing in on a $1 billion funding in sports activities streaming platform DAZN, providing the Arab Kingdom a sports activities broadcasting arm and residential to sports activities rights properties.
Bloomberg and the New York Occasions report that Saudi Arabia, by means of SURJ, an non-public funding agency owned by the dominion’s sovereign wealth fund, is near buying as much as a ten% stake in DAZN, the sports activities streaming platform owned by billionaire businessman Len Blavatnik.
In December, DAZN stated it was paying about $1 billion to broadcast the expanded 32-team Membership World Cup, granting FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino a lifeline for the event. Infantino has lengthy courted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and in December FIFA, with no credible bidding course of, awarded the 2034 World Cup to the Arab Kingdom.
It had been extensively rumoured that Saudi Arabia had been poised to spend money on a roundabout method within the Membership World Cup by means of a broadcast deal to bail out the event. However FIFA’s claims, curiosity within the Membership World Cup from broadcasters has been very restricted and lukewarm.
An funding in DAZN will permit Saudi Arabia affect within the sports activities broadcasting market, signalling the nation’s rising ambitions within the sports activities area. Qatar, the 2022 World Cup hosts, wielded appreciable affect by means of BeIN Media Group, proprietor of BeIN Sports activities, in world sports activities and particularly in European soccer.
Nasser Al-Khelaifi serves because the chairman of the BeIN Media Group. He’s additionally PSG chairman, ECA president and a UEFA government committee member.
Lately, the ties between DAZN and Saudi Arabia have strengthened with the platform the premium vacation spot for the Saudi Professional League, tennis tournaments and elite boxing occasions.
DAZN has lengthy held the ambition of changing into the ‘Netflix of Sports activities’, however regardless of a wide-ranging rights portfolio, the platform has by no means acquired a monopoly place. Final 12 months, DAZN stated the corporate had 300 million month-to-month customers, however that the subscriber base has not been sufficient to stem main losses which now complete greater than $5 billion. DAZN is but to publish its newest set of accounts.
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