DAZN to Acquire EverPass Media to Show Premium Live Sport in Bars, Restaurants and Hotels Worldwide
DAZN, a leading global sports entertainment platform, announced on 26 August 2026 that it has agreed to acquire EverPass Media, in a move that accelerates the group’s expansion in the United States. The acquisition marks the full global launch of DAZN for Business, a dedicated media platform serving bars, restaurants, hotels and other commercial venues around the world.
The agreement gives DAZN a route into one of the world’s largest and most valuable sports markets through the commercial-venue segment, where premium live sport draws customers into out-of-home settings. It sits alongside DAZN’s existing direct-to-consumer app, extending the group’s reach from the living room to the local bar.
Why the DAZN and EverPass deal matters now
For DAZN, the venue market is the one major US viewing environment it did not already serve at scale. The company frames the deal as another step in its ambition to reach sports fans wherever and however they choose to watch, whether at home, on the go or together in commercial venues. By pairing its consumer app with EverPass’s commercial footprint, DAZN says its consumer and commercial businesses together will let it serve sports audiences across every major viewing environment in the US.
EverPass was founded in 2023 by 32 Equity and RedBird Capital Partners as a purpose-built media and technology platform connecting rightsholders, distribution partners and business owners to premium live events. The acquisition reflects what the company describes as a three-year effort to change how premium live sport reaches commercial venues.
What the EverPass deal means for DAZN for Business
Following completion, EverPass’s technology will serve as the foundation for DAZN’s next generation of commercial venue distribution, and the business will formally rebrand to DAZN for Business. Alex Kaplan, CEO of EverPass, will continue to lead the business and take on a larger role within DAZN. Existing EverPass customers will continue to receive service and support as usual, with no interruption as a result of the acquisition.
The deal also reshapes DAZN’s ownership. RedBird Capital Partners, TKO Group Holdings and 32 Equity will become minority shareholders in DAZN, aligning the streaming group with the NFL’s strategic investment arm and two established sports investors.
How NFL Sunday Ticket anchors the DAZN acquisition
At the centre of EverPass sits the exclusive commercial distribution rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, which includes every live out-of-market Sunday regular-season afternoon NFL game. In July 2026, EverPass and DIRECTV reached a new agreement to collaborate on distributing NFL Sunday Ticket via satellite and streaming, ensuring the commercial marketplace has access to the content across the United States.
Beyond the NFL, EverPass supplies venues with programming from the English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, MLB, NBA, WNBA, NWSL, NASCAR, PGA TOUR, MLS, Formula 1, and college football and basketball. It also holds distribution partnerships with Peacock, Netflix, Paramount and Apple, as well as YES Network and Chicago Sports Network. For DAZN, that content stack is what gives the acquisition its weight in the US market.
Commenting on the agreement, Shay Segev, CEO of DAZN Group, said: “DAZN can now serve every type of customer in the U.S. – from individual sports fans using the DAZN app to commercial venues looking to provide the best possible viewing experience for their customers.”
The operator read on DAZN’s commercial venue platform
The strategic logic is straightforward. EverPass has built an IP-based technology platform for the increasingly complex needs of multi-screen commercial venues, delivering premium streaming through a single commercial solution. Its capabilities include centralised management of multiple screens and venues, smart content scheduling, integration with existing audiovisual infrastructure, commercial-grade streaming devices, and tools that let businesses promote offers, engage customers and measure performance. Rather than build that from scratch, DAZN is buying a working platform and the venue relationships that come with it. The move also fits a broader pattern of DAZN building out its platform beyond straight broadcast, including a tie-up with Polymarket to integrate prediction-market data into its live sports product.
Gerry Cardinale, Founder and Managing Partner of RedBird Capital Partners, pointed to the shift underway in the market: “RedBird and 32 Equity founded EverPass as sports content continues to move to streaming while many businesses remain tied to legacy distribution.”
Hans Schroeder, Executive Vice President, Media Distribution at the National Football League, said the acquisition expands the NFL’s partnership with DAZN: “Together, we will continue to expand reach for commercial NFL Sunday Ticket and deepen engagement in a key segment where fans gather for NFL football.”
Mark Zhu, Chief Strategy Officer at TKO Group Holdings, an early investor in the business, said: “Nothing brings people together like live sports, and EverPass helps power that experience for fans beyond the home and arena. As an early investor, TKO is excited to continue supporting EverPass in this next chapter and seeing the results this combination with DAZN can deliver for fans, commercial venue owners and partners around the world.”
What is still pending in the DAZN and EverPass deal
The announcement is an agreement to acquire, not a completed transaction. Several of the changes it describes, including the rebrand to DAZN for Business and the platform becoming DAZN’s technology foundation, are tied to completion of the deal. DAZN has not disclosed a deal value or a completion date in its announcement, so the timing and financial terms remain open. Those details, rather than the strategic intent, are what will determine how quickly the combined business takes shape.
What comes next for DAZN and EverPass
DAZN says it will invest in expanding the platform’s capabilities, content offering and geographic reach, with the stated ambition of creating the leading global technology and distribution platform for premium sport in commercial venues. The acquisition also builds on DAZN’s recent US direct-to-consumer moves, including partnerships with Top Rank Boxing and Premier Boxing Champions, adding to its existing relationships with the world’s largest boxing promoters. It also follows DAZN’s multi-year rights deal to broadcast Extreme Fighting Championship free-to-view worldwide, part of a wider push to grow the content it can offer across markets. Taken together, the consumer app and the commercial platform point to a single strategy: owning how premium sport reaches audiences worldwide, whichever screen they watch on. Whether DAZN can turn that combined reach into a durable lead in commercial distribution is the question the next phase will answer.
Source: DAZN Group
