DAZN, the sports streaming platform backed by Saudi Arabia’s Surj Sports Investment, is preparing a bid for global broadcasting rights to the UEFA Champions League from 2027. The move signals another bold stride in Saudi Arabia’s growing influence in global football and represents one of the most ambitious media plays in recent years.
For the first time in the tournament’s history, UEFA has opened a global rights package in its 2027–31 tender cycle. The winning bidder will secure exclusive access to the first-choice Tuesday match of each round for audiences worldwide. The value of the single-game global rights is estimated at £440 million per year—roughly 10% of the entire Champions League rights portfolio—placing the total four-year package at about £1.76 billion.
The tender, managed by US-based Relevent Sports, has drawn interest from major streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney+. Yet, industry observers note that DAZN, with its proven global infrastructure and recent success broadcasting FIFA’s Club World Cup, stands out as a serious contender.
Saudi Investment Fuels DAZN’s Global Push
DAZN’s aggressive strategy follows Saudi Arabia’s February acquisition of a 10% stake in the company for $1 billion through Surj Sports Investment. The deal underscored Saudi ambitions to diversify its sports portfolio and increase its presence in football’s global ecosystem.
Just two months prior, DAZN had also committed another $1 billion to secure exclusive worldwide broadcasting rights for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup—an investment that appears to have paid off. The streaming platform reported a staggering 2.7 billion total views and 10 billion social media engagements during the tournament, though the figures reflect aggregate views rather than unique audiences.
Encouraged by those results, DAZN and its Saudi backers are seeking to replicate that success with the Champions League. Insiders suggest that Surj and DAZN’s majority owner, Sir Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries, are willing to greenlight substantial funding for high-profile tournaments, viewing global football as a key driver of future profitability.
Club World Cup Success Lays the Groundwork
DAZN’s handling of the 2025 Club World Cup demonstrated the company’s technical readiness to handle large-scale global streaming. The 63-game tournament was broadcast live without major disruptions, showcasing DAZN’s capability to deliver stable, high-definition coverage across multiple regions.
While viewership in England remained modest—despite sublicensing many matches to Channel 5—the platform achieved remarkable traction in other territories. FIFA data revealed that 131 million Brazilians, equivalent to 62% of the nation’s population, watched the tournament. Nielsen Sports also reported 28 million and 24 million viewers in Italy and Spain respectively, markets where DAZN already holds domestic rights to Serie A and La Liga.
This performance has strengthened DAZN’s case as one of the few media companies with the technical capacity, global reach, and streaming experience to make a success of UEFA’s new global rights model.
Balancing Growth with Financial Discipline
Despite its international ambitions, DAZN is under increasing pressure to achieve profitability. Insiders have disclosed that management has been instructed to cut costs and streamline operations following the Club World Cup. The directive reportedly came from both Access Industries and Surj Sports, emphasizing the need for sustainable business growth.
Evidence of this shift surfaced in Europe earlier this year, when DAZN withdrew from its French Ligue 1 rights agreement and sought to renegotiate a five-year, $440 million contract with Belgium’s Jupiler Pro League. The dispute arose after DAZN failed to secure a carriage deal with a traditional broadcaster, leaving Belgian league matches available only via the DAZN app—a setback in local visibility.
Nonetheless, both major shareholders are reportedly open to approving major capital commitments for strategic, high-impact projects such as the Champions League, seeing global events as key to long-term success.
A Defining Moment for Global Sports Streaming
UEFA’s decision to make a global rights package available for the first time marks a watershed moment in sports broadcasting. Traditionally, football rights have been sold market by market, allowing local networks to tailor coverage to regional audiences. The new tender, however, aligns with the streaming era’s emphasis on borderless, digital-first viewership.
If DAZN’s bid succeeds, it could reshape the way global audiences consume Europe’s premier club competition, making the Champions League a unified digital experience for the first time. Industry analysts say the move would also consolidate Saudi Arabia’s growing influence over the global sports economy, extending beyond ownership of clubs and tournaments to the very platforms through which fans engage with the game.
Whether DAZN can outbid global entertainment heavyweights like Amazon and Disney+ remains to be seen. But the platform’s combination of Saudi capital, technical capacity, and global vision makes it a formidable player in football’s next broadcasting
