DAZN: RedBird is also among the new shareholders
The platform acquires EverPass in the US and minority shareholders come on board. EverPass becomes DAZN for Business: setting its sights on the public venues market
DAZN is stepping up its expansion in the US, and this time it’s a two-pronged move: it is growing its US business and bringing new investors on board. With the acquisition of EverPass Media – the financial terms of which have not been disclosed – RedBird Capital Partners, 32 Equity (the NFL’s strategic investment arm) and TKO Group Holdings will become minority shareholders in the sports platform.
It’s a strategy that DAZN has already tried. The acquisition of the Australian company Foxtel had led to capital from Murdoch’s News Corp and Telstra. In 2025, however, Surj Sports Investment came on board, a vehicle of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF, investing one billion dollars. Control remains firmly in the hands of Leonard Blavatnik through Access Industries, but a circle of industrial and financial partners is thus expanding around the founder, whilst DAZN prepares for a new phase of growth and keeps the possibility of a future stock market listing in the background.
EverPass, however, is first and foremost an industrial investment. Founded in 2023 by RedBird and 32 Equity, it has built a platform in the United States to stream sport to pubs, restaurants, hotels and other commercial premises. Its portfolio includes a prized asset in the form of the exclusive commercial distribution rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket, as well as the Premier League, Champions League, MLB, NBA, Formula 1 and university sports, alongside agreements with Peacock, Netflix, Paramount and Apple. With this acquisition, DAZN is therefore making a grand entrance into the US B2B market. EverPass will be rebranded as DAZN for Business, and its CEO, Alex Kaplan, will continue to lead the business whilst also taking on greater responsibilities within the group.
“EverPass Media offers us a tried-and-tested commercial distribution platform, well-established relationships with US commercial venues and an attractive portfolio of premium rights,” explains CEO Shay Segev. Essentially, DAZN – which until now has been known in the US primarily for football and combat sports – is seeking to become a full-spectrum sports distributor, reaching audiences both on their sofas at home and in front of screens in bars and pubs.
And it is precisely this transformation that explains why RedBird has chosen to remain in the game by acquiring a stake in DAZN. “EverPass offers a streaming platform developed specifically for the commercial market, which will help lay the foundations for DAZN’s commercial business and expansion in the United States,” says Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of the fund. RedBird, therefore – which is currently involved, on the Paramount Skydance side, in the biggest media and entertainment deal of the moment (the acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery) – is not simply pulling out of an investment: it is investing in DAZN and betting on the platform’s growth. For DAZN, this is another acquisition that pays double: greater industrial scale and new partners in its capital structure.
