Dazn Dumping Bellator and Ending the Deal

Do you think Showtime is ponying up anywhere near the type of money DAZN was? If not it sounds like one side is dumping. I'm glad I never bought DAZN. I currently get Show for free, not sure how long that is lasting though. Do you know if they have as big a reach and audience as DAZN?
Showtime doesn’t have to pony up anything. Showtime is a Viacom owned network. Bellator is under the same umbrella now as Showtime boxing. It’s all overseen by Espinoza. Stephen Espinoza is now Scott Coker’s boas. They will be treated just like showtime boxing. If anything this move helps their exposure, they’re no longer on a random streaming service but now an established pay channel in the states. We’ll see how it plays out. But the proverbial sky is not falling any time soon.
 
They won't die but it'll be interesting to see how they try and compete financially for fighters now.

Chandler's contract is up soon, I think whether he re-ups or goes elsewhere could be a tell tale sign of the kind of money they are prepared to offer fighters.
I don’t believe this will hurt the pay of fighters. Bellator has plenty of financial backing to pay a potential free agent $400-500k if they really want to. I think Chandler is a special case where his time has run up and Coker doesn’t see the need to pay him. Coker might actually want him to go to the UFC. There’s really no point in re-signing him unless he signs a “team friendly” deal, which Chandler definitely won’t. It all comes down to how cheap the UFC is. Chandler is as good as gone if UFC ponies up the dough. What I think the bigger change will be leaving DAZN is that we won’t be seeing those $1m tourneys. I think DAZN was pushing that $1m thing. That might fade away after the DAZN deal.
 
Things will get interesting from a financial standpoint. 33+ million coming from an outside source is a huge number to replace. Good for them building some revenue up around the world with media deals because they are going to need it. I doubt Bellator will fold or anything. But it makes you wonder if what we are getting from Bellator is about all we are ever are going to get out of the product.

Moving to Showtime is great, but Showtime paying Bellator for content is more or less Viacom paying themselves at the root of it. Your putting the expense of "X" for one entity to the receivables of another entity under the same overall roof. Great for us fans, but it's a step back on the bottom line for Viacom/Bellator.

P.S.: Really can't blame DAZN for not exercising the option. I think they understood quite quickly they overpaid like they did with a lot of deals. You bought content that the fan base of that content in America was barely pulling 500K in ratings for good cards. Why would you think hundred of thousands would instantly sign up for DAZN. Sure a maybe 50K to 100K sign up but is that worth 33 million a year????? I couldn't make sense of it the day they signed it and after seeing it play out Viacom made out like bandits, DAZN got shit in return overall for paying over 60 Million in two years and that isn't even debatable.
 
I don’t believe this will hurt the pay of fighters. Bellator has plenty of financial backing to pay a potential free agent $400-500k if they really want to. I think Chandler is a special case where his time has run up and Coker doesn’t see the need to pay him. Coker might actually want him to go to the UFC. There’s really no point in re-signing him unless he signs a “team friendly” deal, which Chandler definitely won’t. It all comes down to how cheap the UFC is. Chandler is as good as gone if UFC ponies up the dough. What I think the bigger change will be leaving DAZN is that we won’t be seeing those $1m tourneys. I think DAZN was pushing that $1m thing. That might fade away after the DAZN deal.

I agree, I doubt it will have any effect. It never appeared they really ever tapped into the DAZN money for talent, at least on a big scale.

Chandler to Bellator is like Rory to the UFC. Both fighters have ran their course in each org. throughout their careers. Time for something new.
 
smart move by DAZN

Bellator has been making nothing but terrible decisions since losing Bjorn Rebney
 
no ticket sales during covid and probably suffer post covid. This in addition to dazn dumping bellator means 63% of their revenue could be gone.

This could be the start because every media company across the world will be tightening their purse strings. Covid is going to kill businesses that were barely making any money.
 
They won't die but it'll be interesting to see how they try and compete financially for fighters now.

Chandler's contract is up soon, I think whether he re-ups or goes elsewhere could be a tell tale sign of the kind of money they are prepared to offer fighters.

I think Coker knows he has chandler by the balls because chandler wont go near usada. He'll probably stay with bellator or go to onefc
 
I think Coker knows he has chandler by the balls because chandler wont go near usada. He'll probably stay with bellator or go to onefc
ONE won’t touch him because he brings no value to their brand. Rizin might try to sign him and hope they can use him to build the resume of Yachi or Mikuru Asakura.
 
I honestly enjoyed having DAZN. Id work late shifts and come home and watch the already recorded Bellator and Boxing cards. Would usually watch 2-4 cards a month so it wasnt a bad deal.
 
I think Coker knows he has chandler by the balls because chandler wont go near usada. He'll probably stay with bellator or go to onefc
Chandler is in a strange situation, he has ran his course in Bellator, tbh. Bellator's LW division is so shallow that there isnt any interesting match-ups left for him. Any interesting match-up for him is a rematch or a trilogy (Chandler vs Benson 2, Chandler vs Patricio 2, Chandler vs Patricky 3, Chandler vs Primus 3) so he doesnt have a lot of value for the company right now. The only interesting fight for Chandler that isnt rematch, is a cross-promotion fight against Musayev from Rizin, but is a risky fight because Musayev is really dangerous but has little name value in the US. That being said, the LW division being as shallow as it is, letting go of Chandler would be ridiculous.
If money was in issue with Bellator, then I would let go of Chandler and use that money to try and sign Charles Oliveira from the UFC, who just finished his last fight in his contract and is in a nice winning streak. It would open a whole lot of new possibilities for Bellator's LW division and he is probably worth more to Bellator than to the UFC. Problem is, Dana would have to be crazy to let Oliveira go, so it is probably never going to happen.
 
ONE won’t touch him because he brings no value to their brand. Rizin might try to sign him and hope they can use him to build the resume of Yachi or Mikuru Asakura.

fight with eddie alvarez in ONefc would be pretty big.
 
Hilarious that some Sherdoggers are actually stating IF DAZN drops Bellator that it won't effect Bellator. First, by Bellator being able to use the $33 million dollars from DAZN, it allowed Bellator not use their own money to book venues, to pay fighters, to pay staffers, to pay creditors, to pay for the little extras when it came to the certain promotions on their cards, to pay for other promotions to push Bellator. In turn, by having that head start money from DAZN, it allowed Bellator to take those ticket sales and pocket that money, to take those advertising dollars and pocket it and that helped Bellator show a profit for the first time under Scott Coker. Without that money from DAZN, now Bellator has to use that ticket sales money and advertisers money and investors money to pay all of their expenses and what is left, may show a profit or may not show much of a profit at all. As with anything, time will tell. We only have the history of Bellator under Scott Coker to go from. From 2014 to 2018 before DAZN, Bellator never showed a profit under Coker. Only when DAZN came in to do business with Bellator did Bellator show a profit and was basically able to influence Dave Green to fold BAMMA and sign Dave Green and sign those BAMMA fighters. We will all be witnesses to what will happen next. But that is only IF DAZN drops Bellator.
 
Last edited:
I’d love Mousasi, Pitbull , Lima , Bader , MVP and Chandler to join the UFC
 
smart move by DAZN

Bellator has been making nothing but terrible decisions since losing Bjorn Rebney

Coker's made a few good moves. Few good signings, cross promoting. I reckon Bellator would've had more stars if Bjorn stayed. The tournament format seems like a proven method to develop talent. Just look at the PFL tournaments. As soon as the finals come around, they get a lot of attention.
 
Coker's made a few good moves. Few good signings, cross promoting. I reckon Bellator would've had more stars if Bjorn stayed. The tournament format seems like a proven method to develop talent. Just look at the PFL tournaments. As soon as the finals come around, they get a lot of attention.
Not really. PFL’s ratings suck.
 
If you say so. If nobody watches them, how are they getting attention?

They get attention by winning the tournament. I don't watch PFL but I always hear about the tournament champions and see them in a bunch of interviews.
 
Coker's made a few good moves. Few good signings, cross promoting. I reckon Bellator would've had more stars if Bjorn stayed. The tournament format seems like a proven method to develop talent. Just look at the PFL tournaments. As soon as the finals come around, they get a lot of attention.
Rebney ran tournaments correctly
Coker tournaments lasted longer than Strikeforce, which were already a chore
 
Back
Top