DAZN seeks rights to show all EFL games
The OTT sports broadcaster is said to want to end the 3pm cutoff to show all games live.
UK.- DAZN, the OTT sports broadcaster behind the DAZN Bet, reportedly hopes to buy the rights to show all English Football League games live. It’s likely to have competition from Sky Sports, Viaplay and BT Sport/TNT Sports but it’s unlikely that the other contenders will have bid to show all of the matches.
With there being a massive 1,656 EFL matches, the EFL has split broadcast rights into packages – more than 20 of them. These cover the three EFL divisions, play-offs, the EFL Cup and the EFL Trophy. The EFL wants to rake in £200m from the entire offering and is inviting bids of between three and five years.
Currently, Sky Sports shows 138 Sky Bet EFL matches across the Championship, League One and League Two plus all play-off matches, 15 Carabao Cup ties and the semi-finals and final of the Papa Johns Trophy. SkyBet sponsors the EFL.
However, DAZN has said it believes the arrangement leaves the EFL “under-exposed” and that a market exists to show every match live both in the UK and worldwide. That would mean the EFL having to repeal the longstanding Saturday afternoon blackout rule. In force since the 1960s, the rule prohibits football from being broadcast between 2.45pm and 5.15pm in order to prevent the televisation of matches from affecting live match attendance from dwindling.
Meanwhile, DAZN Bet has chosen Playtech as its lead online casino solutions provider. DAZN Group made a soft launch of its online gambling venture in the UK last summer.
DAZN Bet already holds domestic rights to Serie A in Italy and associated Champions League and domestic coverage in Germany and Spain. It’s widely expected to consider making an offer for the Premier League rights when the current deals expire in 2025. Apple is also rumoured to be interested in both the EFL and the Premier League.
