DAZN’s parent company, Perform Group, is a leading digital sports content and media group which commercialises multimedia sports content across internet-enabled digital platforms. The company owns one of the largest digital sports rights portfolios covering more than 200 sports and their associated leagues, tournaments and events. Perform Group wanted to transition from acquiring the rights to global sports events and reselling them to partners, to creating a new live sports experience and go direct-to-consumer.

“About two years ago, when a lot of our technology and time was being spent on third party services, we saw the paths that OTT services such as Netflix were starting on and we felt it was the right time for someone to do this with sports and engage directly with consumers,” explains Ben Lavender, Chief Product Officer of DAZN.

And so DAZN was born. The live and on-demand sports service can be accessed across multiple connected devices by consumers in Japan, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. “We are bringing you multiple sports, and multiple packages in an OTT environment. You don’t need cable or a satellite dish. You can get content on any device at any time — your iPhone, iPad, computer, games console, and your connected TV. For the sports industry, it’s a first and it’s huge. Consumer behaviour is changing; people are less inclined to sign up for big, long-term contracts that’s just for their TV or their sport. They may have to have an entertainment package, or a phone line, or maybe all of these things at the same time. What we’re offering is a very simple product at an affordable monthly price point — you have it and you can come out of it when you don’t want it,” says Lavender.

For launch, DAZN wanted a subscription management solution that would enable them to go to market quickly, scale easily and work across all their customers globally. Zuora helped DAZN launch quickly and successfully in Japan, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. With our flexible pricing and packaging, DAZN can easily meet the requirements of each market. And using Zuora to bill their customers accurately and on-time minimizes payment delays and ensures that there are no revenue leakages.

“Our ability to accept and process multiple currencies and payment methods is also central to DAZN’s success on the global stage. With multiple different payment integrations on Zuora, we are able to offer much more freedom of choice and a very flexible model for the consumer,” says Lavender. In a space such as sports media which is dominated by event-based subscriber spikes, Zuora’s ability to easily scale is just what DAZN needs as it continues to add more subscribers.

“The future for DAZN is really exciting. Perform is a global company. We’re in 42 countries globally, so there’s no reason DAZN shouldn’t be there as well,” says Lavender. Zuora is proud to partner with DAZN as the sports OTT leader prepares to expand across the world.