Perform Group’s sports-focused streaming service DAZN has struck another large-scale rights deal in combat sports, reaching a nine-figure deal with Viacom-owned Bellator that will bring seven fight cards per year exclusively to DAZN and another 15 simulcast across the service and Viacom’s Paramount Network. The deal will begin with a Sept. 29 event in San Jose featuring Gegard Mousasi and Rory MacDonald, and a fourth bout between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Wanderlei Silva. “This deal goes a long way to positioning Bellator as a true global franchise,” said Kevin Kay, president of the Paramount Network, TV Land and CMT, who developed the agreement for the MMA property along with Bellator President Scott Coker.” The Bellator agreement follows the minimum $1B, eight-year pact DAZN struck last month with Matchroom Boxing. Specific financial terms were not disclosed. But the deal signals a continued push by DAZN and Perform to invest in exclusive content and brand itself in part as a prominent home for combat sports. And DAZN CEO James Rushton said the deal bears some similarity in length and scope as the Matchroom Boxing one. “We’ve given Bellator some serious firepower to be able to go out and continue to attract the top fighters in the world and keep building top events,” Rushton said. DAZN currently operates in Austria, Canada, Germany, Japan and Switzerland, and is planning debuts in the U.S. and Italy later this summer, though domestic pricing and marketing details have yet to be announced.
