Case study
Streaming win: How DAZN increased authorisation by 5.19%
Learn how Adyen helped DAZN stay ahead of the game to reduce churn, maximise revenue, and entertain sports fans worldwide.
For DAZN, the leading sports entertainment platform, enhancing the fan experience is at the core of what they do.
This includes making it easy to sign up, watch content, and engage with countless interactive features.
Founded in 2016, the UK-headquartered company now serves over 300 million viewers around the world.
Here’s how Adyen’s financial technology has played a key role in its growth.
The challenge: Navigating a competitive industry while scaling quickly
The subscription market has become increasingly competitive over the past decade. In fact, it’s projected to grow to over $900b globally by 2028.
One way to stand out? With an effortless payment experience.
“Our customers want to watch sport live so the worst possible scenario would be to have a major event and someone being unable to pay,” says Mike Sharkey, DAZN’s VP of Business Development, Payments.
With this in mind, DAZN needed a partner that could support its ambition to scale quickly and securely, while minimising technical issues during the billing process.
“Our goal was to collaborate with a partner who specialises in what they do. Adyen struck the balance between being innovative while ensuring the basics are performed to a high standard.”
Mike Sharkey
VP of Business Development - Payments, DAZN
The solution: Payment optimisations supported by a reliable platform
From the outset, DAZN turned to Adyen for its expertise in the payments space.
To reduce transaction failures and create a frictionless experience, DAZN uses optimisation solutions like network tokenisation and real time account updater.
“As a subscription service, the customer has limited interaction with payments after the initial sign up. So billing has to work smoothly,” explains Mike.
When it comes to fraud detection, Mike points to Adyen’s risk management solution which “provides several valuable risk rules to help us identify and stop bad actors. If there’s a lot of fraud linked to DAZN, it could impact our reputation with banks and consumers.”
And to address the complexity of managing recurring payments across regions, currencies, and devices, Adyen’s reliability takes centre stage:
“We grew from four markets, to nine, to over 200. Adyen provided support that enabled us to go live everywhere.”
Mike Sharkey
VP of Business Development - Payments, DAZN
The result: Increased authorisation by 5.19%, global expansion, and maximised revenue
Since partnering in 2016, Adyen’s financial technology has supported DAZN in multiple ways:
Minimised churn: In the last six months alone, Adyen’s optimisation solutions have provided a 5.19% uplift in authorisation rate — most of which has come from network token optimisation.
Personalised payment experiences: DAZN has rolled out 16 local payment methods, each relevant to its target audience. These include major card schemes, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
Global reach: DAZN has received payments from over 200 markets in the last 12 months.
Always-on development support: “With Adyen’s optimisation tools, our engineering team doesn’t need to do any work. They can focus on the DAZN product while leveraging Adyen’s expertise,” shares Mike.
As for the future, DAZN has more ambition in mind. Its priorities include driving organic growth and further enriching the fan experience.
This means focusing on operational excellence and adding new revenue stream integrations.
Mike says they can get there with Adyen’s help:
“By continuing to support payments 24/7, manage high-volume events, and optimise our authorisation rates, Adyen can help us provide a seamless customer experience and grow our revenue.”
Mike Sharkey
VP of Business Development - Payments, DAZN