February 18 – The rumours surrounding the Saudi Arabian investment in DAZN can now be confirmed as fact, after SURJ Sports Investment agreed to buy a minority stake in the sports broadcaster.
SURJ Sports Investment is part of the Saudi fund known as PIF (Public Investment Fund) and was launched in 2023. It will work with DAZN to create DAZN MENA (Middle East and North Africa).
This long-running saga looked to be dead on its feet back in October of last year, when a PIF spokesman denied it had plans to invest in DAZN, telling Reuters the fund was “not currently engaged in discussions with DAZN” and it had “no current plans to invest in the company.”
However, DAZN founder Sir Len Blavatnik has overseen multi-year losses that run into the billions. A 10% stake in his company is rumoured to be worth $1 billion.
In an amazing coincidence, this was the amount that DAZN paid FIFA in early December for the rights to this summer’s football extravaganza known as the Club World Cup.
FIFA had been struggling to find a media partner which agreed with its valuation of the tournament, until DAZN announced that it would pay the rights fee and broadcast the event for free.
With this injection of cash, there will be worried executives in Qatar, where beIN Sports is based and is currently the 800lb gorilla in MENA when it comes to sports.
As DAZN slowly crawls its way to profitability, Blavatnik will look to recoup his losses, and with a men’s World Cup on the horizon in Saudi Arabia in 2034, a rights deal for the most popular sporting event on the planet looks like a done deal.
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