DAZN Group

DAZN Group Limited (formerly Perform Group) is a British sports media company owned by Access Industries.

DAZN Group Ltd.
TypePrivate
IndustrySports broadcasting, sports journalism
FoundedSeptember 2007
HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
Key people
Revenue£208.1 million (2013)[1]
£11.6 million (2013)[1]
£4.6 million (2013)[1]
ParentAccess Industries
Websitemedia.dazn.com

Its current flagship property is DAZN, a subscription sports streaming service. It also owns other digital media properties associated with the service, including sports news websites such as Sporting News and Goal, and DAZN Media—which coordinates advertising sales on the DAZN service, as well as digital video content syndication.

Perform Group was originally formed in 2007 via the merger of Premium TV Limited and Inform Group. It was originally involved in content distribution, subscription, advertising and sponsorship, and technology and production.[2] In 2018, the business-to-business units of Perform Group were spun out as Perform Content, and later sold to Vista Equity Partners and merged into its own sports data company STATS.

History

Perform Group was created in 2007 through the merger of Premium TV Limited, an event sport broadcasting network, and the Inform Group, a digital sports rights agency.[3][4][5]

In February 2011, Perform acquired Goal.com. [6] In 2011 and 2013 the company bought sports data companies RunningBall[7] and Opta Sports respectively.[8]

In 2013, Perform Group combined its U.S. businesses with The Sporting News to form Sporting News Media, in which it took a 65% stake. Sporting News' former owner American City Business Journals retained 35%.[9]

Perform Group was de-listed from the London Stock Exchange in November 2014 when Access Industries increased its stake in the company from 42.5% to 77%.[10]

In December 2014 Perform and the WTA announced a 10-year media deal, under which they would jointly form WTA Media to manage and distribute its media rights.[11] In February 2016, Perform Group and the FIBA announced a partnership to distribute and sell broadcasting rights to its basketball competitions.[12]

DAZN, split
Former logo as Perform

In August 2016, Perform Group launched the online sports video streaming service DAZN, described by media as being a "Netflix for sport".[13]

On 8 May 2018, former ESPN president John Skipper was named executive chairman of Perform Group. He will operate out of New York City.[14]

In September 2018, Perform Group was split into two companies; DAZN Group (named after its streaming service) for its consumer content operations, and Perform Content for its business-to-business services. It was reported that this was in preparation for a potential sale of the latter in order to help fund the DAZN operations. In April 2019, it was announced that Perform Content would be sold to Vista Equity Partners. It was subsequently merged into STATS LLC to form Stats Perform.[15][16][17]

In March 2019, DAZN re-organized the Perform Media division into DAZN Media. It handles advertising and sponsorship sales for DAZN's global operations, including the "DAZN+" program (which coordinates "personalised communications" between its partners and subscribers), and DAZN Player (formerly ePlayer), the group's syndicated video content service.[18]

In May 2020, the Financial Times reported that DAZN Media were seeking further investment in order to secure the future of the business, which had been badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.[19][20] In October 2020, it reached a deal to sell stakes in its football websites Goal, Spox, VoetbalZone to Integrated Media Company (IMC), a portfolio of TPG Capital.[21]

References
  1. Preliminary results 2013
  2. "Perform Group Given Average Rating of "Hold" by Analysts (NYSE:PER) - WKRB News". WKRB News. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  3. Andrews, Robert (2011-03-10). "Online Sportscaster Perform Plans IPO With £500 Million Valuation". gigaom.com. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  4. "Digital content agency rebrands as Perform". www.sportindustry.biz. 2014-09-18. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  5. "Perform unveils sports bulletin". C21media. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  6. "Global offer" (PDF). Perform Group. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 May 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  7. "Perform buys RunningBall for €120m". Financial Times. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  8. "Perform Group buys sports data company Opta". Reuters. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  9. "Perform Group To Combine U.S. Sports Assets With Sporting News Brand". sportsbusinessdaily.com. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  10. Ted Menmuir. "Perform Group to de-list as Access Industries takes over". SBC News. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  11. "WTA & Perform agree long-term media deal". sportindustry.biz. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  12. Fiba and Perform Group confirm ‘ground-breaking’ partnership - SportsPro, 5 February 2016
  13. "Blavatnik's Perform Group rebuffs tech investors to build 'Netflix for sport'". The Telegraph. 20 August 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  14. Littleton, Cynthia (2018-05-08). "Former ESPN Chief John Skipper Joins Len Blavatnik's Perform Group as Chairman". Variety. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  15. "Report: DAZN owner planning split to increase focus on OTT platform". SportsPro. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  16. "DAZN Group sells Perform". Broadcast. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  17. "Stats, Perform Complete Merger, Creating New Data/AI Company". Sports Business Daily. 15 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  18. "DAZN to add advertising partners to OTT platforms". SportsPro Media. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  19. "Sports streaming group DAZN seeks cash to help secure future". www.ft.com. Financial Times. 23 May 2020. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  20. "DAZN set to withhold rights payments in bid to survive coronavirus crisis - SportsPro Media". www.sportspromedia.com. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  21. "DAZN agrees US$100m plus Goal.com sale to IMC". SportsPro Media. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
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