Eddie life after DAZN?

I wonder if Barry Hearn will sign the company over to someone he can trust more

 

The reason they left sky was because he is trying to build a global business.

When dazn inked a deal with GBP the same nonsense was said that dazn were getting away from Matchroom etc etc.

Why the heck would dazn be backing Matchroom to run shows in Australia if they were looking to get out lol.

 

I wondered how much of this was two-sided. Sky (Smith) openly said some of the latter Matchroom cards were ****, so maybe they weighed his balls by not funding him as well. Sky still has regular boxing on Saturday nights, is building up a decent reputation for working across promoters and I'm willing to bet they're not being held to ransom in the process.

You can also bet they'd help in some way to promote a Usyk-Fury undisputed fight, since BT would depend on Sky subscribers and Top Rank would appreciate the help from a partner. None of that would have happened with Matchroom in tow.

 

I have a colleague in television who told me that DAZN and Matchroom have entered into a 5-year agreement and that there is a clause in the contract that one of the parties can withdraw after 3 years. Can you confirm this ? Good luck with your show down under.

 

As much as DAZN UK has been a failure from a fans perspective, I think globally it's going pretty well for Matchroom boxing. They're far bigger and more influential than they were before the DAZN deal. Hearn still has the option of being a fulltime promoter in the US, which he should've done already IMO, and he's hardly going to see himself as a failure while he's promoting AJ and Canelo fights.

 

Well that wouldn't be a surprise with a deal that big. When was the deal inked? June 21 so at the earliest you could see a break is June 2024.

Why would anyone be speculating now when it's not like we have seen anything from dazn to cause such speculation?

 

This is what I think many seem to ignore. It wasn't just the money from dazn , there is just no way Matchroom could expand into other territories if they stuck with sky.

One could argue whether such expansion is a wise move but if that's what the plan was they had to leave sky.

 

A promoter over played his hand , hardly a revelation !

 

I don't understand that either.

People here in the U.K. forget that DAZN works satisfactorily in many countries.

Matchroom is very successful on several fronts. Viaplay Group, which recently extended their TV / streaming agreement with Matchroom to many countries, is very satisfied. Darts in particular attracts a lot of viewers.

 

The thing I want to know is, what are DAZN's real expectations for Matchroom? When they proposed a deal, Matchroom were at their peak in the UK, but this has significantly diminished and doesn't look like picking up anytime soon. Okay, so they are not as concerned about the UK and it's more about growth on the international stage? I mean outside the UK and US how big is the market in other countries when it comes to boxing? and I'm not talking about selling international rights, I'm talking about building international stables and holding more shows abroad outside of US/UK. Is this DAZN's primary objective? Does DAZN care about their performance in the UK ?

 

If I was a betting man I'd say DAZN saw Matchroom UK as short term growth and a route into an important market, with a UK-based partner that shared their global ambitions. As has been said elsewhere on the thread.

Trafford and others have looked at calculations which would show boxing on DAZN UK making money in the past year as I recall, so maybe it's just a way to give Matchroom a baseline to work from as they expand elsewhere.

 

is Alvarez signed to Matchroom?

 

As far as I'm aware, they signed him for his last fight as a one fight deal. He's not tied down to anything.

 

They are all fighting on November 26. Whyte Franklin, Wardley Gorman, and Babic potentially against Kadiru.