Offering sports betting was a natural step for DAZN to complement the user journey, explained the group’s CEO Shay Segev during his keynote speech at ICE 2026 last week.
Segev, who had a long career in gaming before joining DAZN, discussed the company’s progression into a betting operator to broaden its offering beyond a pure sports broadcaster.
Segev, who joined DAZN as co-CEO in June 2021 before taking over as the primary chief executive in January 2022, believes DAZN Bet positions the company as the go-to digital experience for sports fans.
“Someone who bets on Barcelona to win is probably watching Barcelona [play],” Segev said. “And where do they watch? They watch on DAZN.
“I can watch Barcelona. I can chat with my friends as part of communities. I can see if there’s last minute tickets to buy. I can buy merchandise. I can play some gamified challenges. If I missed games, I can see some personalised highlights. Or I can bet.”
Segev emphasised that DAZN Bet was developed as a complementary product to its broadcasting offering, adding: “When you go to DAZN, you go because you like sports and we don’t expect you to bet. If you want to bet, it’s a complementary product.”
DAZN Bet launched in the UK in August 2022, before going live in other markets such as Germany and Spain in 2023.
It also recently secured a licence in Ontario, with Canada expected to become DAZN Bet’s first non-European market.
Italy a success story for DAZN Bet
Segev highlighted Italy as a case study for DAZN Bet’s success, with the group renewing its exclusive broadcast partnership with the Italian top-flight league Serie A in 2023.
The deal will run until 2029, with DAZN the only platform on which Italian football fans can watch every Serie A match.
DAZN Bet launched in Italy in late 2022, and Segev believes the market presented a blueprint for how sports broadcasters can successfully converge with betting.
“Italy is clearly a big core market for DAZN,” Segev said. “The Italian market is a €5 billion online gaming and betting industry.
“DAZN is the biggest sport platform in Italy, having the exclusive rights for Serie A for the games. So if you’re an Italian who likes sport, you like football, right? And they can only watch it on DAZN, so they should be able to bet on DAZN. So this is where we’re going with that.”
Regulators understand the benefits
DAZN Bet is currently focusing on regulated markets, Segev told the audience, with the operator live in the UK, Spain, Italy and Germany. It is also looking ahead to its anticipated launch in Canada.
In Segev’s view, it is crucial to work with regulators and governments to explain the financial benefits that DAZN can offer sports leagues.
“In a way, we are almost a little bit of a different beast in the standard of online betting companies, because we’re coming in as a broadcaster,” Segev explained. “In Italy, the government is getting that the more we can monetise our platform, the more we can invest back into the league.
“In Italy today, we are by far the number one player for the Italian league. So if you’re Juventus or AC Milan or Inter Milan, a big chunk of the revenues is coming from DAZN, because we’re paying them.
“If you can monetise this right, either through subscription, which is our biggest revenue stream by far, through advertising or betting, or through any type of ticketing, then we can pay more for the league. They pay more for the clubs, they can buy better players. And it’s actually very positive for the league,” he concluded.