UK included as DAZN announces major expansion plans for streaming service

DAZN, the live and on-demand sports streaming service, will be made available in more than 200 countries and territories, including the UK and Ireland, during 2020, it has been announced.

The first global event on DAZN will be Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez’s soon-to-be-announced fight during Cinco de Mayo Weekend, which will take place on Saturday 2 May 2020.

This first phase of DAZN’s global expansion will be an English-language service focused on boxing, building on the company’s investment in the sport over the past two years.

DAZN holds international rights to many of the world’s top promotional companies including Golden Boy Promotions, Matchroom Boxing USA and GGG Promotions. Fighters such as Alvarez and Gennadiy “GGG” Golovkin will be part of a year-round portfolio of premium fights and original programming on the new service.

“Beginning this spring, most of the world will have access to DAZN and its unmatched schedule of boxing events,” said DAZN Group Executive Chairman John Skipper. “Our roster of championship fighters represents some of the world’s most popular athletes and we’ll be working with them to stage spectacular international events for years to come.”

“Since our launch in 2016, we’ve seen an encouraging level of interest around our key events from both international fans and potential partners, which highlighted the opportunity to capitalize on our existing rights portfolio within boxing to fuel our expansion,” said DAZN EVP Joseph Markowski, who will oversee the global service.

“Establishing DAZN as the global home of fight sports is just the first step and we couldn’t think of a better attraction for our inaugural event than Canelo’s traditional Cinco de Mayo Weekend fight.”

In addition to live sporting events, DAZN will offers an archive of classic fights, athlete features and a slate of original programming.

To date, DAZN has debuted services in nine countries – Austria, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United States – across four continents.

The DAZN app will be available globally on most internet-connected devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, PCs, and living room devices such as smart TVs, streaming sticks and game consoles.

Pricing by market will be announced in the coming weeks.