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DAZN is actively on the hunt for even more pro team local media rights, bringing additional emphasis to one of the most unlikely stories this year across sports media.
In the last six months, the London-based streamer has acquired local rights to 19 teams across MLB, the NBA, NHL, and WNBA, a collection that includes some smaller-market clubs such as the Grizzlies and Pacers, but also dominant and popular teams such as the defending NBA champion Knicks and runner-up Spurs, and the Yankees.
DAZN, however, tells Front Office Sports that it expects to soon dwarf its current number of clubs as it creates a new U.S. foothold to build beyond its original base in combat sports, soccer, and international distribution.
“We’re in active talks with a number of teams, plus a number of leagues,” DAZN CEO of growth markets Pete Oliver tells FOS. “Once we go into the next season, including the [2027] baseball season, we expect to bring more teams on board. A big focus for us right now is to do a great job with these [19] teams, have those teams and their fans feel good about this. But after that, we definitely will be ramping up more.”
Among the key targets is the NBA’s centralized streaming destination that it intends to debut for the 2027–28 season—something that several rival entities including Amazon and ESPN are also pursuing.
The collection of local rights already in place for DAZN, though, extends an active wave of 2026 dealmaking that has included the acquisition of NFL Sunday Ticket commercial distributor EverPass Media, a separate purchase of streaming technology developer ViewLift, and a large-scale streaming pact with the Gotham Sports partnership involving the YES Network and MSG Networks. That latter agreement brought in seven teams, including the Knicks and Yankees.
Despite being a relative unknown in U.S. sports media—and yet another streaming service competing for fan attention and spending—DAZN is leaning heavily on local fan tribalism.
“The idea is to have all the local games for your favorite team, so we think we’re a pretty important service,” Oliver said. “If you’re in Minnesota and a Timberwolves fan, for example, there are certainly national games, but we will have the vast majority of their games. And compared to the traditional cable model, we think we’re actually making these games more accessible, particularly among younger fans.”
DAZN further heralded its domestic arrival with a Wednesday event in New York that included appearances by Knicks forward Karl-Anthony Towns and YES Network analyst Joe Girardi.
“The brand of the Knicks is incredible and the brand of the Yankees is incredible, but we need to make these games more available, and that’s what we hope happens here,” Girardi tells FOS.
DAZN is primarily backed by billionaire Len Blavatnik through his private New York holding company, Access Industries.
Building on the Wreckage
A sizable element of DAZN’s U.S. rise takes advantage of the recent demise of regional sports network operator Main Street Sports Group. Many of DAZN’s deals with teams formerly aligned with Main Street Sports are combination pacts that include a minimum rights guarantee, along with performance-based incentives based on subscription and advertising revenue.
That structure—along with DAZN’s separation from the heavy debt and declining linear television economics that dragged down Main Street Sports—has created a new path for DAZN.
“We’ve been working on this strategy for about 18 months, and saw a big opportunity in U.S. local rights,” Oliver said. “This is the biggest sports market in the world, but local sports is actually quite underserved. What happened with [Main Street Sports] really accelerated our thinking. We actually had a look as to whether we could buy that business. As it turned out, we couldn’t, but once we got to February or March of this year, we got serious about going to talk to all the teams. And that’s continuing.”
Outside the U.S., DAZN holds streaming rights to several top-tier leagues, including the NFL and PGA Tour.
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