DAZN Seeks New Audience By Streaming Boxing Match Between YouTube Stars Logan Paul And KSI

DAZN, a major player in the global sports streaming space, has secured the rights to broadcast the boxing rematch between YouTube stars Logan Paul and JJ “KSI” Olatunji, in an effort to attract a new audience to the platform.

Their upcoming bout, scheduled for November 9th at Staples Center in Los Angeles, will completely bypass YouTube, the platform that helped build their careers and will be broadcast on DAZN, a platform that aspires to become the “Netflix of sports”.

The first fight, which aired on YouTube’s pay-per-view last August, garnered more than 1 million viewers, all of whom paid $10 for the fight.

However, other platforms like Twitch and Twitter picked up the stream illegally and amassed more than 1.2 millions viewers.

DAZN has stepped in to offer a reliable pay-per-view option and company executives believe the re-match will draw millions of viewers, as the OTT service is still trying to secure a foothold in the United States.

“As a new entrant into the U.S. landscape, we’re growing our brand awareness among a young, tech-savvy demographic of sports fan,” DAZN’s North America executive vice president, Joe Markowski, said.

“These are the new superstars of the modern era, and we can’t ignore that.

“This is the social media age, and there is huge fan interest in this fight, and they command a huge digital following.”

Paul and KSI boast around 20 million YouTube subscribers each, but to watch the fight, viewers will have to buy a monthly subscription to DAZN for $20 or a yearly pass that costs $100 – the trick for the network will be to convert those fans into long-term subscribers.

“We don’t see much crossover between this demographic and our existing subscriber base, so it’s a whole new demographic,” Markowski said.

“And we’ll have a month, at least, with every new subscriber to serve them with our wider portfolio.”

DAZN is based in the United Kingdom, available in nine countries and currently broadcasts English Premier League and NFL games in Canada, the NFL in Germany and the leading network for domestic baseball and soccer leagues in Japan.