DAZN’s Shay Segev: “We don’t want to be bet365”

DAZN CEO Shay Segev has revealed he is not pinning his hopes of company growth on the OTT sports broadcaster’s new betting venture and insisted it will make up part of a wider product ecosystem.

Speaking at the SBC Barcelona Summit, Segev said DAZN’s aim was not to “maximise betting” despite having soft-launched its beta DAZN BET product in the UK and deploying a mass recruitment drive across the industry.

Former BoyleSports CEO Mark Kemp, who recently spoke exclusively to EGR to discuss his vision for DAZN BET as a second-screen experience, will lead the venture from its Gibraltar HQ, while a series of senior execs from the likes of 888, Entain and William Hill have been onboarded.

Segev said the new betting vertical would make up a part of the DAZN project, which envisions a “one-stop shop” for sports fans including streaming, news, merchandise, fantasy sports, NFTs and betting.

Segev said: “We know the betting market is quite big. In terms of maximising betting, our objective is not to maximise betting; our objective is to maximise the opportunity. The opportunity is not necessarily just betting.

“We are open to other revenue streams around sport. We don’t put betting in the centre, unlike a betting company. We are putting the customer and the sport at the centre and allow them to consume what they want,” he added.

Touching on external expectations of the venture, Segev noted the product would be different from traditional sports betting firms and argued the platform should be viewed as such.

He continued: “We don’t see ourselves as a competitor of bet365. We don’t want to be bet365 – we aren’t going to provide you with the best odds. We don’t see ourselves as bet365 from a product point of view. If you want to watch and enjoy your game and feel part of the excitement [via betting], this is DAZN.”

When questioned by EGR on the strategy of hiring impressive industry talent and going to the effort of launching DAZN BET but seemingly pulling back at the same time, Segev said: “It’s not like we aren’t going all in. It depends on what you call all in.

“Does all in mean we want to develop a business to maximise betting, or do we want to develop a business that maximises our relationship with the customer?

“The product needs to evolve. We have more than 30 million people on our platform. We need to put something relevant to them, that is soft. We are still experimenting; the idea is to develop it. There is no rush.”

He continued: “We don’t need to make £50m EBTIDA from betting quickly, but we want to build a long-term sustainable business which creates value. Then we want to scale it globally. We don’t want to start fast and make mistakes; we want to start by building responsibly and then maximise it,” he added.

Despite pouring cold water on the potential of becoming a leading sports betting operator in its future markets, Segev noted that he expects there to be significant growth as a side effect of the business’ wider growth.

He added: “If you’re asking me whether DAZN is going to be a big betting business, the answer is probably yes. But not because we want to be one; because we become a big sports platform and betting would become an element of that.”

Launched in 2016 with the goal of becoming the ‘Netflix of sport’, DAZN is owned by Ukraine-born tycoon Sir Len Blavatnik, who has an estimated personal fortune of £20bn.

After the recent soft-rollout of DAZN BET in the UK, launches are planned for Ontario, Spain and other regulated European markets in due course.