Esports tournament organiser Blast has signed a media rights partnership with sports streaming platform provider DAZN Group for 2022.
The partnership will focus on CSGO tournament Blast Premier, which will be available across 100+ DAZN territories, live and on-demand, including the UK, Japan and USA.
Like other streaming platforms, viewers can watch content on their smart TVs via the DAZN app or online. DAZN, which is known for its boxing content, currently charges its users £7.99 per month in the UK for its subscription-based service.
As part of the deal, DAZN will broadcast Blast Premier’s remaining five events of the year including the Spring, Fall and World Finals that are all set to be hosted in major arenas around the world.
DAZN will broadcast next week’s Spring Final (from June 15th to 19th 2022), which will be hosted in Lisbon’s Altice Arena – the biggest indoor arena in Portugal and one of the biggest in Europe. It will feature UK broadcast talent Freya Spiers, James Banks – who joined Bad News Eagles last month – and Pala.
Last year DAZN broadcast over 27,000 sporting events across 956m hours of streamed content to more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.
Alexander Lewin, VP of distribution and programming at Blast, said:
“We’re thrilled to team up with one of the world’s biggest and most respected sports streaming services in DAZN. Our overarching aim is always to ensure Blast Premier is available and accessible in as many regions around the world as possible, this partnership is helping us to achieve that goal with Blast now broadcast in 154 territories and in 25 languages.”
Alexander Lewin, Blast
“Our partnership with DAZN in over 100 markets is testament to the current global demand for Blast Premier and the high production quality.”
Tom Burrows, DAZN EVP of rights at DAZN Group, added: “DAZN is committed to making a broad range of sport more accessible to an ever-increasing number of fans and this is a great opportunity to partner with Blast Premier and broadcast the Counter-Strike tournament series on our platform.
“There is a fast-growing market for esports and the series is a great fit for DAZN while we continue to expand our offering and become the ultimate sports destination platform for fans.”
Up to 32 of the world’s best teams take part in the seven Blast Premier events across the year with a combined prize pool of $2,475,000 on the line.
Blast Premier recently teamed up with a London consultancy to find host city locations for the 2023 season.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
