Fanatics is getting into the streaming business through a long-term partnership signed Thursday with Dazn Group, a leading U.K.-based global sports entertainment and live streaming business.
Under the terms of the deal, Dazn’s 60 million-plus customers will now be able to purchase licensed team merchandise and sports apparel directly through the app beginning in the third quarter of this year. The second phase of the partnership, which is expected to be live within a year, will be a virtual store embedded into the Dazn experience that will be personalized to the profile of the user and offer merchandise tied to his or her favorite teams and players that can be purchased with one click.
Dazn, which operates in Italy, Spain, Germany and Japan, offers a subscription service for users to see live and on-demand sports, news, analysis and highlights as well as betting, ticketing and now, e-commerce.
“Dazn is the perfect partner for them as they expand internationally — we are on a mission to build a single global destination platform for sports fans that removes friction and delivers everything they want in one place,” said group chief executive officer Shay Segev. “Fanatics and Dazn share similar long-term goals, and this is a great beginning of a long-term partnership. Having an integrated online store where fans can buy their team’s official merchandise and sportswear is part of the overall fan experience — it’s an essential expression of support and fan culture to millions.”
Gary Gertzog, Fanatics’ president of business affairs, added, “Like Fanatics, Dazn is committed to providing global sports fans with the best possible experience when they visit its platform, and this partnership will enable Dazn to expand its offering and make it even easier for fans to access their favorite team merchandise. Finding new, innovative and improved ways to better serve sports fans is something we are constantly focused on and enabling Dazn to bring a fully integrated merchandise offering to its platform helps to do this.”