UK-based DAZN Group has announced plans to divest its shareholdings of several of its European football assets.

Specifically, the global OTT sports broadcaster will be divesting its shareholdings in Goal.com, SPOX, and VoetbalZone, to Integrated Media Company (IMC) – a new digital sports publisher – in a deal worth $100M USD. 

Little is currently known about IMC, other than it is backed by San Francisco-based private equity fund TPG Capital, and DAZN will maintain a significant minority shareholding and voting rights in it. 

DAZN, which pitches itself as the “Netflix of Sports” was badly hit earlier this year when global sports were all but cancelled by the COVID-19 lockdowns, and in May reports suggested one of its major investors, US billionaire Len Blavatnik, was reassessing the future of his investment in the company. 

IMC has said it plans to enhance the advertiser proposition across the three former DAZN brands, which together generated almost 150 million unique visitors in August 2020.

Discussing the news, Managing Director of IMC, Ori Winitzer, said:

“There are four billion soccer fans on earth. Their passion transcends borders and limits though the media serving them does not. 

“We see a significant opportunity to expand the platform’s reach and engagement through new content verticals, products, and experiences. We’re excited to partner with DAZN to serve all constituents in the soccer world.”

AYO.NEWS says:

A sports-focused media group like DAZN was always going to be hit extremely hard by the COVID-19 crisis, so it’s no surprise to see the company try to shore up its finances by offloading some of its assets. Of course, with the COVID-19 crisis rumbling on, and lockdowns and restrictions starting to return in many countries and regions, there may be a lot more sports disruption still to come. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

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