DAZN Group Limited (formerly Perform Group) is a British
sports media
Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...
company owned by
Access Industries
Access Industries, Inc. is an American privately held multinational industrial group. It was founded in 1986 by businessman Leonard "Len" Blavatnik, who is also its chairman. Access's industrial focus is in four areas: natural resources and c ...
.
Its flagship property is
DAZN
DAZN ( "da zone") is a global sports entertainment platform. Different to traditional linear and satellite broadcasting, DAZN is an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service meaning that it is delivered directly to viewers via the internet.
The ...
, a global sports subscription streaming platform. It also owns a significant minority stake in the leading football portal ''
Goal
A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.
A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ai ...
'' after TPG's Integrated Media Company (IMC) acquired a majority stake in 2020.
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. In 2018, the business-to-business units of Perform Group were spun out as Perform Content, and later sold to
Vista Equity Partners
Vista Equity Partners is an American investment firm focused on financing and forwarding software, data, and technology-enabled startup businesses. Vista has invested in hundreds of companies, including Misys, Ping Identity, and Marketo.
The co ...
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.
In February 2011, Perform acquired
Goal.com
GOAL is an international association football news website for FC Barcelona fans founded in 2004 by Chicco Merighi and Gianluigi Longinotti-Buitoni. It is published in 19 languages, with 38 national editions and 600 contributors. It is owned by ...
.
In 2011 and 2013 the company bought sports data companies RunningBall and
Opta Sports
Opta Sports, formerly Opta Sportsdata, is a British sports analytics company. Opta provides data for 30 sports in 70 countries, with clients ranging from leagues to broadcasters and betting websites. The company was founded in 1996, and acquire ...
respectively.
In 2013, Perform Group combined its U.S. businesses with ''
The Sporting News
The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...
'' to form Sporting News Media, in which it took a 65% stake. Sporting News' former owner
American City Business Journals
American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States, Hemmings Motor News ...
retained 35%.
Perform Group was de-listed from the London Stock Exchange in November 2014 when
Access Industries
Access Industries, Inc. is an American privately held multinational industrial group. It was founded in 1986 by businessman Leonard "Len" Blavatnik, who is also its chairman. Access's industrial focus is in four areas: natural resources and c ...
increased its stake in the company from 42.5% to 77%.
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. In February 2016, Perform Group and the
FIBA
The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its na ...
announced a partnership to distribute and sell broadcasting rights to its basketball competitions.
DAZN, split
![Perform Group](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Perform_Group.png)
In August 2016, Perform Group launched the online sports video streaming service
DAZN
DAZN ( "da zone") is a global sports entertainment platform. Different to traditional linear and satellite broadcasting, DAZN is an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service meaning that it is delivered directly to viewers via the internet.
The ...
, described by media as being a "
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
for sport".
On 8 May 2018, former
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
president
John Skipper
John Skipper is an American television executive, former executive chairman of DAZN Group, and former president of ESPN.
Career Education and early career
Skipper attended Lexington Senior High School in Lexington, North Carolina. He the ...
was named executive chairman of Perform Group. He operated out of New York City.
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
Vista Equity Partners is an American investment firm focused on financing and forwarding software, data, and technology-enabled startup businesses. Vista has invested in hundreds of companies, including Misys, Ping Identity, and Marketo.
The co ...
. It was subsequently merged into
STATS LLC to form
Stats Perform
Stats Perform (formerly STATS, LLC and STATS, Inc.) is a sports data and analytics company formed through the combination of Stats and Perform.
The company is involved in sports data collection and predictive analysis for use across various spo ...
.
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.
In May 2020, the ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' reported that DAZN was seeking further investments in order to secure the future of the business, which had been affected by the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. In October 2020, it reached a deal to sell stakes in ''Goal'', ''Spox'', ''VoetbalZone'' to Integrated Media Company (IMC), a portfolio of
TPG Capital
TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American investment company based in Fort Worth, Texas. The private equity firm is focused on leveraged buyouts and growth capital. TPG manages investment funds in growth c ...
, and in December 2020 it sold ''Sporting News'' to PAX Holdings.
References
External links
*{{Official website, https://dazngroup.com/
British companies established in 2007
2007 in London
2007 establishments in England
Companies based in London
Sports mass media in the United Kingdom
Data companies