🥊 The £1bn fight for British Boxing
This week we explore how Anthony Joshua holds the keys to the future of British Boxing. Jesse Lingard is now an owner of a sports team too.
This week Sky Sports announced they are staying in UK Boxing.
Many thought that Sky would remove themselves from the sport after Eddie Hearn took his Matchroom stable to DAZN earlier this year.
However after announcing their dual partnership with Bob Arum’s Top Rank and UK-based stable BOXXER, they have committed to providing boxing coverage for another four years.
Let’s break down the British Boxing landscape:
Sky Sports - BOXXER & Bob Arum’s Top Rank
BT Sport - Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions
DAZN - Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing
- Sky Sports: Cost - from £33.99: Promoter: Bob Arum (Top Rank)
Marquee Fighters: Josh Taylor (TR), Vasiliy Lomachenko (TR), Terence Crawford (TR), Naoya Inoue (TR), Chris Eubank Jr (BOXXER)
The Sky Sports machine has been turning brilliantly for 10 years whilst working with Matchroom making stars out of Kell Brook, Carl Froch, Dillian Whyte, Anthony Joshua etc.
Now Matchroom have left the building, can they do the same with a pretty sub-par BOXXER roster and a Top Rank roster without great appeal in the UK?
Remains to be seen.
Their biggest chance is throwing money at Anthony Joshua to ensure he keeps his fights on Sky Box Office. An expensive ask.
- DAZN: Cost - £7.99 | Promoter: Eddie Hearn
Marquee Fighters: Anthony Joshua, Canelo Alvarez, Katie Taylor, Gennadiy Golovkin, Dillian White, Lawrence Okolie
Eddie Hearn is a visionary, and his current vision is making his Matchroom brand to a new OTA free-standing streaming service DAZN.
DAZN are well-backed (UK’s Richest Man Len Blavatnik) and have been throwing money at fighters and promotional stables to make fights happen.
Eddie has the roster, but his biggest challenge so far is going to be convincing the casual British Boxing fan to pay £8 per month to watch regular Matchroom cards. Can he create enough content to warrant a subscription?
Remains to be seen.
Their biggest chance is throwing money at Anthony Joshua to ensure he takes his fights from Sky over to DAZN. An expensive ask.
Queensberry Promotions: Cost - from £14.99 | Promoter: Frank Warren
Marquee Fighters: Tyson Fury, Joe Joyce, Daniel Dubois, Anthony Yarde, Lyndon Arthur
Frank Warren is in an interesting place.
Frank famously tried a DAZN-esque move with the now failed Box Nation in the Mid-2000’s, a move ahead of its time.
Is there enough star power in the roster to cultivate a star of AJ or Dillian Whyte proportions to make BT Sport the home of British Boxing?
With reports that BT have been exploring a sale of their Sport division, do BT themselves have enough vested interest to back Warren raising awareness of fighters?
With Daniel Dubois and Anthony Yarde, two promising prospects experiencing trajectory-hurting losses recently Warren has a tough ask on his hands.
His best bet is throwing money at Anthony Joshua to ensure he takes his fights from Sky over to BT Sport.
There’s a theme running here…
Anthony Joshua: The Glue that Holds the Scene Together
Let’s just look at AJ’s last five fights:
December 2020: Joshua vs Pulev: 948,000 PPV buys ~ SSE Arena (lockdown)
December 2019: Joshua vs Ruiz II: 1,575,000 PPV buys ~ (Custom built Arena in Saudi Arabia)
June 2019: Joshua vs Ruiz: 562,000 PPV buys ~ Madison Square Garden
September 2018: Joshua vs Povetkin: 1,247,000 PPV buys ~ Wembley Stadium
March 2018: Joshua vs Parker: 1,832,000 PPV buys ~ Principality Stadium
Anthony Joshua is quite easily the biggest star in UK Boxing history.
AJ could fight YOU in Clapham Common on Saturday night and sell 500,000 PPVs!
There are a number of key questions to his future however:
Does AJ need/rely on the Sky Sports machine to promote his fights?
Does he exercise loyalty to Matchroom and Eddie Hearn by exclusively moving to DAZN?
With the biggest fight in boxing history with Tyson Fury looming in the distance, where does he steer his allegiances?
He’s going to get paid either way. It’s just by whom, and where.
With so much content and an arms race for market share, the biggest winner in all of this is us, the fans.
Stay tuned for more as time passes.
Elsewhere in the 🌏 of Sport:
🍺 UFC have renewed their marquee partnership with Modelo. The deal is “in the low 8 figures” and will continue for 8 years. Modelo replaced Bud Light as the Official Beer of the UFC in 2019.
🥊 Speaking of the UFC. Ciryl Gane beat Derick Lewis at UFC 265. Afterwards, in an interview with L’Equipe he made his purse info public. Before taxes and his cut to his coaches, Gane said his purse was $350,000. After taxes, his team’s cut, and the currency conversion, he claims his take-home was around €160,000.
🏋🏽♀️ Wearables unicorn WHOOP raised $200m at a whopping $3.6m valuation this week, tripling their valuation in just 12 months. Their cap table is blessed with some leading venture firms but also a healthy range of athletes. Rory Mcillroy being the most notable name from this side of the Atlantic. Patrick Mahomes, Justin Thomas and of course, Kevin Durant being others who have scored big in the companies growth.
💰 Jesse Lingard delves into ownership
Jesse Lingard has acquired his own eSports team.
This week, Ubisoft announced that Jesse Lingard has bought UK-based Audacity Sports and rebranded it to JLINGZ esports.
The team plays Rainbow Six Siege, the latest instalment in Tom Clancy’s Ubisoft Series and will enter the UK&I Nationals next season.
He’s not the only footballer with vested exposure in eSports:
February 2020: Gareth Bale launches eSports team ELLeven Sports
October 2020: David Beckham becomes co-owner in Guild Sports
I unsuccessfully scoured the internet for information on the commercials of this deal but a quote from Jesse Lingard did catch my attention:
My JLINGZ brand has been growing for a number of years but to finally dive into esports and add my own teams to JLINGZ is incredible.
The JLINGZ brand, often mocked but maybe the biggest identifiable brand in modern football.
I’ll be sure to keep an eye on their journey.
I’m Jordan, I enjoy bring you these articles every week. See you next Monday.