New format tournament, World Sevens Football, is set to take the globe by storm when the first competition kicks off in Portugal on 21 May. The game – which is bringing the best women’s professionals together in a series of three-day competitions this year – is being brought to viewers by DAZN, which is the host broadcaster for World Sevens Football.

DAZN is the production and distribution partner – and supporting part of the commercial structure – of World Sevens Football. As well as producing the world feed, DAZN will be simultaneously creating its own feed of the tournament.

Broad strategy

Speaking to SVG Europe, Hannah Brown, EVP business development at DAZN, explains further: “We have a multifaceted relationship with Sevens where we are an operational and strategic partner for them, versus a traditional licencing broadcaster.

“We are producing the feed and we are distributing that under DAZN, but we’re also working with the network of influencers and actors to promote the broadest reach and engagement. So how we collaborate with the clubs, with the players, with creators and influencers, and obviously with Sevens themselves, so that we can create a really broad marketing and content matrix out there from a social perspective, with a call to action about coming back to DAZN to watch.

“As we develop our relationship with Sevens, we’re also going to work with them on a licencing point of view where other broadcasters and local markets that pick up content can work with us to promote the competition more broadly.”

She continues: “What sits across all of that is then the commercial opportunity of selling into brands, our ability to partner and activate at the event level, but also across media in all kinds of guises, be that the platform and across social. That’s the kind of overall strategy and objectives, which from my perspective is the big focus.”

Moving parts

Even this close to Portugal, there are a lot of moving parts on the production as DAZN works closely with World Sevens Football to make sure the inaugural event is just right.

Says Brown: “We’ve got our production teams that have now been working really closely with Sevens to build out a very solid execution of the first live event. I think with all of these things there can be the risk of running before you can walk, and the most important thing is that we deliver a great event, and we produce a really solid experience that is available for fans who aren’t on site to come and watch.”

Critically from a DAZN and World Sevens Football point of view, the games are free to watch for viewers. Notes Brown on the first event, which is being held at the Estádio António Coimbra da Mota in Portugal: “This will be available for free on DAZN. We’ve got a big YouTube channel, so we’ll be using that as a marketing funnel as well to drive awareness and engagement, [as well as through] how we work with the clubs and the players and various influencers and creators and publishers, to collaborate and market with short form content.”

Keeping fresh

On the first day of the event there are four matches, on the second day there are eight matches, and on the final day back to four again. Each is played in two 15 minute-long halves, with a one hour window per match overall.

Says Brown on the production coverage: “We’ll be building up and then recapping and then building up again, especially on that second day, which is going to be a long broadcast with effectively eight hours of windows around each of these half hour matches. There’ll be a bit of an interlude halfway through the day on day two, and we’re going to just rotate through commentary and talent so that we keep it fresh but provide continuity at the same time.

“Hopefully you’ll see lots of fresh voices and faces,” she continues. “We’ve got relationships with the clubs and with their own ambassadors, so there will also be a slightly flexible approach where we can get talent also available on site to come and be part [of the broadcast], to supplement the underlying talent list that we have. We’ve got lots of air time to play with! I think that will also be quite interesting.

“And the way that the venue is set up is there’s a player’s lounge and there’s a party deck, so there’ll be lots of opportunities for us to think about how we tell the story and the excitement of what will be three really exciting days of football,” she notes.

She notes that with VIP cabanas, some general access grandstanding, the party deck and the players lounge all on site, while space on the smaller seven-a-side pitches will be tighter, the broadcast, “should look pretty rich”.

“It’s going to be fast paced, so having sufficient camera positions is pretty important to make sure that we can capture everything,” she adds.

“The first focus is to make sure we get a really solid execution of this first event; that is everyone’s number one aim.”