Virtually every modern sports fan has probably seen the DAZN logo plastered over a sporting event of some sort by now. Intended to get read as Da Zone, this brand is an international OTT streaming service founded in 2015. Yet, it got much of its mainstream attention when it entered the boxing world three years later.
DAZN is a part of the DAZN Group, a corporation primarily owned/run by the multinational industrial group – Access Industries, which has a long track record of investing in Europe, Latin America, and the US. Most North Americans first learned of this video service in mid-2017, when news broke that it had purchased the rights for the NFL in Canada. The following year, it acquired licenses to stream La Liga and English Premier League matches. During this time, it had also landed an eight-year landmark deal with Matchroom Boxing, which the latter’s chairman, Eddie Hearn, proclaimed as the most historic contract in boxing ever.
In 2020, DAZN expanded to over two hundred countries and began its foray into blockchain with an NFT called DAZN Moments, made possible via a collaboration with Mixi, a famed Japanese online social network. Now, the company is making big moves in the ever-growing sports wagering sphere, where the number of on-hand betting markets is currently staggering, thanks to a partnership with renowned Malta-based game developer Pragmatic Play. Its entrance and rapid growth in this arena are detailed below.
The Rise of DAZN Bet
As mentioned above, in April 2022, DAZN told its investors of their plans to go live with an Internet sportsbook that will expand their business model dramatically outside the programming vertical. They tackled this challenge by hiring Sandeep Tiku, Entain’s former COO, to act as DAZN’s novel CTO.
Pragmatic Play is one of interactive gaming’s most prolific game developers, an industry player that nowadays unleashes around six slots per month, sometimes even more. Their games usually feature stunning visuals, and Pragmatic also has multiple live product studios from where they provide streaming table action to online gamblers from around the globe.
According to Ashley Lang, Pragmatic Solutions’ CEO, everyone in Pragmatic Play knows that DAZN fans crave immersive and more integrated experiences. So, with the help of their highly-trained staff, these two entities, working together, have little doubt that they can deliver upon such promises. They stayed true to their word, as evident in the soft launch of their beta solution in mid-2022, which boasted superb quality. Per most trustworthy DAZN Bet review scans, the hub’s interface features seamless navigation and houses a wide range of Pragmatic Play’s reel-spinning arsenal and live wagering solutions.
It is vital to note that Pragmatic Play’s role in their agreement with DAZN is to supply the streaming brand with an underlying technology that will enable DAZN to handle sports betting content and product development, with the Malta provider also contributing Player Account Management (PAM) software.
DAZN Bet’s Expansion
Aside from working with Pragmatic Play, DAZN bet has partnered with other slot suppliers to enrich their platform with top-shelf games. Recognizable names include Blueprint Gaming and Playtech. Hence, the DAZN online gambling site can now compete with the best out there, and this has allowed DAZN to come into the United Kingdom in 2023, as well as other top Old Continent markets like Germany, Italy, and Spain.
DAZN Bet should also quickly be available in the Great White North, as this wagering app will likely go live in Ontario this year, going by the announced last year’s plans.
In 2022, Ontario became the first Canadian region to allow betting on sports, allowable by Bill C-218, passed in June 2021. Once DAZN Bet gets a firm foothold in this province, there is little doubt that it will then quickly start to conquer the rest of North American regions that have legalized online sportsbooks.
Also read: How to Enter into The Sports Betting Business Successfully?