Matchroom Boxing and DAZN announce 5-year global partnership that begins in July

Deal means big shakeup for sport in U.K.

Perhaps the worst-kept secret in boxing became a reality on Thursday as promoter Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing and sports streaming service DAZN announced a long-expected five-year global agreement.

Terms of the deal were not announced but it is believed to be worth nine figures per year.

The deal, which has been more or less an open secret since April, means that all Matchroom Boxing events will continue to stream on DAZN in the United States as well as the addition of the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The new deal begins in July and means a huge shakeup for boxing in the United Kingdom. The deal marks an end to Matchroom Boxing’s longtime partnership with Sky Sports, which has been the U.K.-based promotional company’s broadcast home there since 2012. That deal is expiring and the sides never got close to a deal to renew it.

Hearn has been quizzed about the expected shakeup for the past couple of months but declined to discuss it out of respect for Sky Sports. But he gave his thoughts about it with Thursday’s announcement.

“We have made the monumental decision to sign a historic five-year deal with sports streaming giant DAZN. This means that our U.K. events will now be broadcast live on DAZN along with all Matchroom shows across the world,” said Hearn, who recently took over the title of Matchroom chairman from his retiring father, Barry Hearn. “Pushing the boundaries is something we will always continue to do and we needed a partner that shared our vision for boxing, and who was also willing to make the investment to make those dreams a reality.”

The final Matchroom Boxing event on Sky Sports will take place on June 12 in Newcastle, England, where Lewis Ritson and Jeremias Ponce meet in an IBF junior welterweight title eliminator for the right to become one of the mandatory challengers for undisputed champion Josh Taylor.

The new deal calls for at least 16 Matchroom UK events per year, all of which will be available in the U.K. and Ireland as well as in the United States and DAZN's 200-plus additional markets around the world.

The Matchroom UK schedule will begin with cards on three consecutive weekends starting July 31 and marks the return of the Matchroom Fight Camp series. The bouts are still to be announced.

Although it was not mentioned in the announcement, unified heavyweight world titleholder Anthony Joshua, the top star in the Matchroom Boxing stable and a huge draw on Sky Sports Box Office — its pay-per-view arm — is the exception to the deal with DAZN because he currently has a contract with Sky to show his fights in the U.K. and Ireland, a source with knowledge of the deal told Fight Freaks Unite.

Heavyweight Dillian Whyte, who has also been a regular on Matchroom’s Sky Box Office events, has an agreement with Matchroom that the source said is “a bit complicated” so whether his next fight will be on DAZN or Sky Box Office is unclear. The rest of the Matchroom fighters will all be on DAZN, the source said.

DAZN also announced that the deal will expand upon the existing agreement it has with Matchroom to put on events in the U.S., Italy and Spain, with more events planned in those countries than in previous years.

“Game. Changed,” DAZN co-CEO James Rushton said. “This historic deal builds on the success and momentum of our long-term partnership with Matchroom around the world and solidifies DAZN at the forefront of the global sports streaming era. Together, we are committed to building the new home of boxing in the U.K. and Ireland while continuing to grow the global home of boxing in a way that matches today’s evolving viewing habits and brings fans all over the world more of the most premium live action, more round-the-clock global storytelling, and more broadcast and content innovations.”

Besides beefing up its live fight schedule, DAZN and Matchroom said they are “significantly investing in original content to keep fans, no matter where they are, on the constant pulse of everything in the world of boxing. To begin, the partnership will build on existing DAZN content franchises such as ‘The DAZN Boxing Show,’ ‘40 Days,’ and ‘Making Of’ alongside highlights, clips, interviews, behind-the-scenes content and classics.”

“This is also an amazing opportunity for our newly formed production and content business, Matchroom Media, who will now be responsible for live production across our events, working in close collaboration with DAZN and enabling us to form a cradle to grave mindset across inception to completion of our shows so we can deliver the live event experience to the viewer in the narrative and style in which we have built it,” Hearn said.

“As we continue Matchroom's expansion worldwide, this new deal will enable us to further cement DAZN as the unrivalled global home of boxing. Our aim, alongside DAZN, is to create the biggest and best live fight nights and deliver a viewing experience that is truly game-changing.”

In May 2018, DAZN and Hearn announced a $1 billion, eight-year deal for Matchroom USA to put on 16 American-based events per year in addition to Matchroom’s 16 U.K. cards also being part of the menu in the U.S. while the U.K. cards were shown on Sky Sports. DAZN began showing Matchroom events in September 2018 but the streaming service has gone through a number of changes since and that deal was restructured.

It remains to be seen if Sky Sports will continue televising boxing and if it does whether it will make a deal with another promoter to serve as its fight provider. Matchroom Sport continues to provide Sky Sports with other content, including pool, fishing and bowling.