DAZN, the global over-the-top (OTT) streaming service, enjoyed a strong 2018 as company net debts fell roughly 93 per cent from US$726 million in 2017 to US$50 million up to the end of 2018, according to documents seen by SportsPro.

DAZN’s borrowing has also fallen from roughly US$980 million to US$275 million over the last financial year.

SportsPro understands that Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries Group, DAZN’s parent company, has invested more than US$600 million into the OTT service after seeing significant levels of growth on the platform.

In 2018, Access invested US$848 million into DAZN whilst new partners such as Dentsu Aegis invested US$391 million. To this point, DAZN has received around US$2.2 billion in investment since its launch in 2016.

DAZN has seen exponential growth since its launch in 2016, and even more so between 2017 and 2018.

DAZN’s revenue also increased by 136.2 per cent from 2017 to 2018, hitting US$277.6 million. DAZN Group also saw its income from selling advertising across its sports properties, including Goal, Sporting News and Spox, rise by 4.4 per cent to US$77.2 million.

In addition, DAZN saw increases in income generated across the globe from 2017 to 2018. In Asia this growth was more than US$65.2 million, with the region accounting for 42 per cent of all company revenues; Europe accounts for 44 per cent of the platform’s streaming sales; and the North America region also saw its turnover grow fivefold up to US$14.3 million.

SportsPro understands that DAZN lays claim to more than 4 million subscribers but investments in growing the service and securing new rights deals has seen outgoings double to US$336.6 million.

Across its active territories, the Hammersmith-based operation holds rights to several global soccer leagues, motorsport series, boxing, the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Basketball Association (NBA). Taken as a whole, DAZN Group’s total rights commitments beyond as of April 2019 are US$6.1 billion, which includes rights commitments beyond five years.

DAZN has recently made several moves designed to bolster its streaming service. DAZN Group sold its Perform division to Vista Equity Partners, the owners of STATS, earlier this year in a deal which will see the company receive both cash and a significant minority stake in a new business.

Within the last month the company has also launched a new ad suite based on real-time data, DAZN Dynamics, and its Connect platform, a central hub of live sports feeds aimed to deliver IP and enable clients to consolidate acquisition and distribution of their rights.