DAZN Group

The Business

DAZN (pronounced “Da Zone”) is a London-based over-the-top (OTT) subscription sports streaming service (sometime referred to as “the Netflix of sport”). The service carries live and on-demand streaming of events from various sports rights holders. DAZN first launched in 2016 with services in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Japan before launching in Canada in 2017. It launched in the United States and Italy in 2018, and in Spain and Brazil in 2019.

The service was originally established in 2016 by Perform Group, a sports media company majority-owned by Access Industries, who spun out its consumer-facing operations into a new company known as DAZN Group in September 2018 which also owns Goal.com (the world’s largest online football publication & 2nd largest online sports publication, 2nd only to ESPN) and Sporting News .

In December 2018, DAZN was estimated to be worth £3 billion: it was described by the Evening Standard as one of the United Kingdom’s few tech “unicorns“. As of October 2019, DAZN was the largest engrossing sports app on both the App Store and Google Play stores. The Group now employs c. 2,600 staff and is estimated to have over 4 million subscribers (as on May 2019)

Our history with DAZN
Harcourt Matthews were contacted by one of the 2 founding members of the business due to our previous experience and success in recruiting at Perform Group where they had originally come from. 

Situation & Objective
Harcourt Matthews are a Global Recruitment Business Partner and preferred supplier to multiple functions including Finance, Legal, HR, Data Science and Strategic Projects

Due to rapid expansion and growing from “just an idea” in 2015, the business launched in 9 countries in under 4 years and made headlines with some of the biggest sports deals in history including a $365m 5-year deal with Canelo Alvarez. Each country had very different technological, marketing and consumer challenges to each other so each country ran very independently but supported by central data, technology and legal teams who provided advice on best proactive. Due to the pace of change for each new roll-out, all new employees, regardless of which country they worked in needed fluency in English and an ability to handle the pace of change and evolution, something that local agencies were often slow to understand.

Having supported key stakeholders and board members for 10 years at Perform Group, Harcourt Matthews were approached to support the launch of new countries and the evolution of existing central functions.

Prior to the announcement of their Brazil launch in 2019, Harcourt Matthews were approached by the Head of Resourcing to support the recruitment of the entire senior leadership team in Brazil and none of the recruitment team had experience of working in Brazil. Harcourt Matthews were referred to the Head of Resourcing by a former colleague due to previous successful work we had done the previous year lunching a start-up sports marketing business across LATAM. 

Actions
Early roles were all recruited on an interim basis whilst the London teams and infrastructure was established so early work was often recruited from existing relationships and candidates registered with Harcourt Matthews, often from those with a very strong interest in sports or experience of a start-up environment due to the high risk nature of the venture.

Even for roles that were recruited directly, Harcourt Matthews would provide advice to hiring managers and internal recruiters on market challenges and different approaches that needed to be taken – eg what job sites and different job titles were needed to attract the right candidates.

After successfully recruiting a number of interim and permanent candidates in the UK, some of whom then went to head up new functions in other countries (US and Italy), a new approach was required to help create and entire new senior leadership team for the launch in Brazil.

This work began in January 2019 and all positions were planned to be recruited for the planned launch in March 2019 leaving a very short time period to recruit the right staff.

A comprehensive review of the sports, digital and media markets across multiple functions was provided to the Head of Recruitment to provide understanding of market challenges and best routes to market. It was decided that LinkedIn networking and searching as well as advertising on a small number of local websites would provide the best returns so Harcourt Matthews focussed on 3 core roles:

• VP Finance
• Head of Legal
• Head of Strategic Projects

This work was carried out in conjunction with DAZN’s own advertising due to the strength of its brand and additional marketing it was embarking on in the country.

Harcourt Matthews carried out initial screening as well as 1st interviews via Skype Video before presenting a shortlist for each role. Due to the hectic schedule of hiring managers, Harcourt Matthews also interviewed the direct applicants and their suitability for the positions.

Within 6 weeks, all 3 positions were successfully

RESULTS & Benefits for DAZN using Harcourt Matthews
For the Brazil launch, all three positions were successfully recruited within 6 weeks and all started ahead of the intended launch date.

Following the successful hire of the Head of Legal in Brazil, we were the referred to support for a similar position being hired for the launch in Spain following several failed attempts to recruit directly or via agency.

In 2019, 85% of all roles at DAZN were filled through the internal recruitment team (a mix of advertising, referral and direct approach). Harcourt Matthews were one of only a very small number of agencies asked to support due to our deep understanding of the culture and personality characteristics required to thrive.

As one of very few select agencies chosen to be a preferred supplier Harcourt Matthews has worked closely with the HR & Recruitment team as well as line managers and, more importantly, met with and contributed in briefings led by the Skills Line Management teams, consequently everybody has been on message, advice has been sought & given and challenges dealt with, complimenting the recruitment partnership & process which has led to speedier recruitment and Harcourt Matthews delivering results as a preferred supplier.

Harcourt Matthews have successfully recruited teams and has an ongoing brief to identify talent in the market place to back fill those moving on into the organisation alongside provision of advice on salaries and market conditions

Roles we have recruited for recently – Interim, temporary & permanent include: