Bellator MMA announced on Tuesday that they will be the latest entity to partner with the DAZN live sports streaming service.
Making the announcement via press release, Bellator and DAZN are entering a nine-figure deal that will broadcast fight cards that will simulcast on Paramount Network as well as seven exclusive stacked fight cards per year.
The nine-figure deal will feature
seven exclusive stacked fight cards per year on DAZN and another 15 that are simulcast across Paramount Network and DAZN. All fights will stream in any country where DAZN is available. As part of the platform’s global expansion, DAZN will launch in the U.S. and Italy in 2018, with the service already live in Canada, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan.
Bellator MMA President Scott Coker calls the deal a game changer that will enable them to expand their roster.
“The exciting new partnership with DAZN is a game-changer for Bellator,” said Bellator President Scott Coker. “The investment will enable us to continue expanding our roster with free agents that make sense, so we can put on PPV-worthy fight cards that fans want to see. Plus, on DAZN’s worldwide platform, our fights will be seen live for the first time to new audiences around the globe.”
“It’s simple; fans want to see great fighters in competitive fights so we’ve handed the keys to Scott Coker and his venerable team to go out and recruit even more top-level talent to further stack Bellator fight cards and build on their success,” said DAZN CEO James Rushton. “With the combination of this investment and our recent announcement to bring more than 30 nights of boxing to the platform annually, DAZN will be a must-have for fight fans in the U.S.”
The deal officially gets underway on September 29 with a fight card featuring Gegard Mousasi vs Rory MacDonald with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs Wanderlei Silva meeting for the fourth time on the same card.
Bellator MMA joins the Hearn ran Matchroom Boxing as part of the DAZN networking inking mega deals this year.