DAZN Group, the company behind the international sports streaming subscription service, has appointed Walker Jacobs as global chief revenue officer and president of DAZN US.
In the newly created role, he will lead DAZN’s global advertising and brand partnerships business. In addition, he will lead Team Whistle, DAZN’s US-based social media content creation and distribution company that was acquired by the business in 2023.
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Jacobs is an experienced sports and entertainment advertising executive with a career spanning 25 years.
DAZN said his appointment comes at a time when it is “deepening its relationships with sponsors, brands, and the advertising community to maximize the value of its premium rights portfolio as well as explore new commercial opportunities and monetization models for its recently launched free tier.”
The OTT platform stated that Jacobs' experience of driving cross-platform, interactive, and advanced targeting multi-channel engagement “will drive this agenda.”
Jacobs has previously held roles at major global media companies and brands – including, most recently, Twitch and Amazon.
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By GlobalDataAs president of DAZN US, Walker will lead business development in the market and look for new commercial opportunities for DAZN to expand its US presence.
As chief revenue officer of Twitch Advertising and managing director of sports at Amazon Ads since 2018, Walker oversaw the strategy of Twitch’s global sales and marketing teams.
In addition, he oversaw sales and marketing for Amazon Prime Video’s sports, including the launch of NFL Thursday Night Football.
Before this, Walker was chief operating officer of online entertainment platform Fandom and executive vice president and head of Turner Digital at US media giant Turner Broadcasting, now part of Warner Bros. Discovery.
During his six-year tenure at Turner, he oversaw sales for the entire portfolio including the NBA Digital joint venture with the NBA.
Shay Segev, DAZN Group chief executive, said: “Walker’s impeccable track record of using data and technology to deliver results for brand partners will enable DAZN to maximize the value of our audience within our premium live sports content environment.
“DAZN has built the global digital home for sports fans and we have the technological foundations to enable brands to reach this high-value audience in a hyper-targeted and sophisticated way. This is a very attractive proposition for brands and, currently, an underleveraged part of our business.
“With Walker’s experience, we can anticipate a healthy appetite for innovation, commercial integrations, and new advertising products and, ultimately, strong revenue growth in this area. I am delighted to have attracted such high caliber talent to lead our advertising and brand partnerships business as we evolve our US strategy at DAZN and drive our ambition to reach one billion sports fans globally.”
Jacobs added: “DAZN has built an impressive roster of rights around the world, and we have an enormous opportunity to enhance how we partner with brands and advertisers to further drive growth.
“I am excited to partner with Shay and the team to unlock our full potential, especially as we lean into our free tier of sports programming. I am also incredibly excited to help DAZN grow its presence in the US and strengthen our offering to US viewers by building strong partnerships with leagues and competitions.”
