DAZN believes FIFA Club World Cup could be most streamed sporting event ever
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Soccer superstar Lionel Messi appears in a new Michelob Ultra TV commercia for the FIFA Club World Cup.
DAZN believes the FIFA Club World Cup could become the most live streamed event in sports history.
The Club World Cup begins June 14 with Lionel Messi and Inter Miami playing in the opening match in Miami, and ends with the Club World Cup final at MetLife Stadium on July 13. The Club World Cup winner will take home at least $125 million of a $1 billion prize pool on the line for the tournament.
All 63 matches of the Club World Cup will be available to live stream for free worldwide on DAZN.com, while TNT will broadcast select matches on TV in the United States in English. Univision, TUDN and ViX will broadcast matches in Spanish in the U.S.
"If you take a global point of view, soccer is the biggest sport in the world. We think this will easily become the highest streamed live sports event ever because we're going to have audiences not just in the U.S, but in South America, across Europe, across the Middle East, and so on," DAZN's CEO of Growth Markets Pete Oliver told USA TODAY Sports.
"It's a really big moment to have a truly global sporting event available on one streaming platform. This is going to be an opportunity to bring in a big, new audience of fans onto DAZN, and for them to experience all of the things we do."
Kylian Mbappe and Real Madrid, Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain, Champions League runner-up Inter Milan, Chelsea, Manchester City, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund are among standout clubs participating in the tournament.
Along with Inter Miami, the Seattle Sounders and Los Angeles FC will represent Major League Soccer and the U.S. in the field. Club World Cup matches will also be played in Atlanta, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Orlando, Nashville, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington D.C.
Consider the Club World Cup a precursor to the 2026 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico from June 11-July 19, 2026.
"Well, it's a very big moment. It's a big moment for America, first of all, because it's the first time this tournament (this size) has ever happened," Oliver said. "The biggest teams in the world are going to come and play in the U.S., which we think is hugely exciting. We think it's going to be a very big cultural moment ahead of next year's World Cup."
Oliver expects viewership to be in the "hundreds of millions" and believes DAZN has the infrastructure in place to handle streaming the tournament worldwide.
DAZN streams over 90,000 live events annually and is available in more than 200 markets worldwide – showcasing soccer matches from LaLiga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), Bundesliga (Germany), Ligue 1 (France), women's football, boxing and MMA, the NFL and NBA internationally, and auto racing from Formula One and Moto GP.
"We're planning for hundreds of millions of people because, of course, it's free. And that makes a big difference. No one has to buy a subscription to watch it. They can just download the app and watch," Oliver said.
"It's going to be very big for us globally. As proving ourselves as a global platform, this is going to be very important for us from a technology point of view as well as a customer point of view."
DAZN plans to make the soccer-viewing experience unique for fans.
The Fan Zone within the DAZN app will allow viewers to participate in polls, chat with each other, and talk to influencers while watching the action.
DAZN also will have a referee camera in a FIFA tournament for the first time.
DAZN also will broadcast the tournament in 15 different languages so respective regions across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and South America will be able to experience the tournament like they would any other soccer broadcast by the company.
More than 100 popular social media influencers and creators with a combined reach of more than 32 million followers from countries like the U.S., England, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Libya, France, Venezuela, Italy, Norway, Brazil, and Portugal will bring a wide range of perspectives and cultural energy for the tournament.
There also will be alternative watch-along streams, and daily wrap-up shows to recap the tournament.
"The coverage we're going to bring is going to be very focused on bringing influencers, younger players who've retired recently and got a more contemporary view, players and pundits who represent all the different countries involved," Oliver said.
"We think fans will see a very different premium experience, plus all of those interactive features through the app, making it a much more social and interactive viewing experience than maybe they've had before."
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