In the world of video streaming services, differentiation is key.
Dazn (pronounced Da-Zone) focuses on boxing and mixed martial arts (MMA) events.
For US subscribers, it also offers live streams of other sports such as cricket, darts, and Japanese soccer as well as some sports-centric original shows.
Dazn's streaming performance is good, too.
While the price of entry is high—maybe prohibitively so for general audiences, dedicated boxing and MMA fans will appreciate the lack of pay-per-view (PPV) fees and the exclusive fights.
Other video streaming services offer the US's most popular sports leagues, but Dazn covers this niche better than any other we've tested.
What Can I Watch on Dazn?
The main reason to subscribe to Dazn is for its boxing and MMA content.
At the time of this writing, some of the live fight events on the schedule over the next few weeks are Hooker vs.
Ramirez; Fowler vs.
Rose; Frausto vs.
Cordoba; and Ortiz Jr.
vs.
Orozco.
Boxing and MMA fights don't air nearly as frequently as other sports, so it's not fair to directly compare the frequency of Dazn's live coverage to those services that offer more frequently occurring sports.
Dazn carries boxing from Golden Boy Promotions, Matchroom Boxing, GGG Promotions, and World Boxing Super Series.
The service offers MMA matches from promoters such as Bellator, Combate Americas, and KSW.
Notably missing from the list are Top Rank Boxing and UFC, though the Hooker vs.
Ramirez match was a joint effort by Top Rank and Matchroom Boxing promoters.
Note that you don't have to pay an additional pay-per-view (PPV) fee for these matches; a subscription to Dazn alone grants you access.
Even if you subscribe to some other video service where a boxing or MMA match is set to stream (such as Showtime or ESPN+), you may have to shell out PPV fees, making Dazn an economical and convenient choice for fight fans.
Dazn offers some original programming, including its daily MLB show, Change Up.
The program hops around from game to game each night and incorporates news and analysis.
Dazn also publishes video highlights of each MLB game from the past couple of nights; similar content can also be found on other platforms.
Another original show on Dazn is Sweet Scientists: Ak and Barak, a weekly fighter-focused show.
Aside from boxing and MMA, Dazn combines an odd mix of sporadically scheduled live sports, such as cricket, darts, fishing, gymnastics, and J1 (Japan's top soccer division) soccer matches.
Dazn is a much more complete streaming service for those outside the US, with rights to major sports league broadcasts of games from the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL all available.
Dazn vs.
Sports Competitors
Dazn is closest to ESPN+ in terms of its scope of coverage, but ESPN+ covers a much more expansive and mainstream lineup of live sports, including from the MLB, NHL, and MLS, as well as various golf, lacrosse, rugby, and tennis events.
It even has boxing and MMA content from top promoters, including Top Rank Boxing and UFC, though you have to pay a PPV fee ($59.99) for some UFC Fight Nights on top of your ESPN+ subscription.
Note too, that ESPN+ does not include access to premier ESPN shows, such as SportsCenter or Monday Night Football either.
To watch that programming, you need to find a service that includes the regular ESPN channels.
Other sports streaming services, such as fuboTV and YouTube TV, offer a more traditional and complete array of live sports streams from the MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, and PGA Tour.
Common channels between the top services include CBS Sports, ESPN, Fox Sports, Golf Channel, MLB Network, NBA TV, NBC Sports, NFL Network, and other local and regional sports networks (RSNs).
These services also tend to cost a lot more than Dazn, usually coming in at around double, or close to triple the monthly price (typically starting around $50 per month).
The price difference is warranted though, since these streaming platforms are much better-rounded than Dazn, with news and entertainment channels, as well as significant libraries of on-demand movies and TV shows to stream.
The main difference between these sports streaming services is the selection of channels they offer and how they distribute channels across plans.
For instance, fuboTV does not include ESPN programming, but is one of the best for streaming international sports.
YouTube TV doesn't offer the NFL Network, but it includes ESPN and every other mainstream sports channel you could want.
PlayStation Vue, DirecTV Now, and Sling TV all divide sports channels across a varying number of tiers and add-ons, which makes single-plan services, such as Hulu (44.99 Per Month at Hulu) , a much easier recommendation.
Keep in mind that while all of Dazn's streams are available to watch regardless of your geographic location (in the US), other sports streaming services may be subject to broadcast restrictions and coverage blackouts based on local and regional distribution rights.
Price and Platforms
You can pay for Dazn on either a monthly or yearly basis.
A monthly subscription costs a hefty $19.99 per month, while the annual plan is a better value at $99 per year.
Dazn does not offer a free trial of its service to US subscribers, which probably makes sense, to prevent people from just signing up temporarily each time a major boxing or MMA event airs.
You could choose to only subscribe to the service for the months when the scheduled fights that interest you take place, but if you intend to watch every single fight Dazn offers, the annual subscription is your best option.
As far as comparable dedicated sports streaming services go, ESPN+ costs $4.99 per month, which is quite a bit cheaper—if you don't end up shelling out for a PPV fight or three.
Sling TV's standalone and sports-focused Blue plan costs slightly more than Dazn at $25 per month, while the combined Orange & Blue plan, which adds back ESPN, costs $40.
Hulu + Live TV goes for $44.99 per month, which is a good deal, considering this plan gives you access to its vast library of on-demand TV shows and movies too.
YouTube TV is slightly more expensive at $49.99 per month.
fuboTV's standard plan and PlayStation Vue's sports-focused Access plan cost $54.99 per month.
(The basic PlayStation Vue Core plan is $49.99 per month.) DirecTV Now starts at a reasonable $50 per month, but to get comparable sports channels, you need to spring for its $70-per-month plan.
Dazn is available on mobile devices (Android, Fire OS, and iOS); media streaming sticks, boxes, and smart TVs (Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV 4th Generation, Chromecast, and Roku); game consoles (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One); and via a web browser.
Dazn allows subscribers to stream content from two devices simultaneously, which is about average compared with competitors.
Web and Mobile Apps
Dazn's web interface uses a black background with white text and elements.
It looks very clean overall.
Across the top, Dazn displays the Home, Schedule, and Sports menu items on the right-hand side.
On the left, you get a search field and a dropdown menu item for accessing the Settings, My Account, and Help sections.
The Settings section is pretty bare; your only option is to toggle recommendations and adjust the closed captioning (CC) settings.
The My Account area offers a few more options.
For example, you can view and change your payment details, see which devices you've used with Dazn, change the language (English or Spanish), and opt out of the email subscription list.
I didn't have any major performance issues with navigating the interface in testing.
Dazn's home page shows whatever you were last watching at the top of the page and horizontally scrolling lists of content below.
Examples of categories include Featured, Don't Miss, Dazn Presents, and Classic Fights.
There are also hubs for individual sports here, as well as a navigation bar at the very bottom for all the sports types Dazn offers.
The Schedule tab is a useful tool for discovering upcoming and past events on Dazn.
This section lets you navigate up to a month backward or two weeks in the future to see scheduled content.
You can even filter by sport if you are looking to stream something specific.
The Sports dropdown menu item lets you select from all of the sports types Dazn offers, taking you to landing pages for each sport.
For example, if you click on the Boxing title, Dazn shows a list of available replays, upcoming events, features, and pages for individual competitions and fighters.
In other sections, Dazn gives you the option to dive deeper into specific leagues and promoters.
For example, in the MMA section, you can view events specifically from the Bellator, Combate Americas, KSW, Fight Nights Global, EFC, and Road FC promoters.
The Now Playing screen looks fine, with standard rewind and fast-forward buttons.
The CC option should appear on this screen in the lower right corner, but only if the program supports it.
I also tested Dazn on a Google Pixel 3 running Android 9 and had no issues signing into the app.
The app retains the minimal black-and-white aesthetic of the web interface and performs just as smoothly.
You navigate the app via a menu at the bottom, which includes icons for Home, Schedule, and Sports.
From the hidden left-hand menu, you view your reminders, access the Settings, and launch the web-based My Account and Help portals.
Reminders are a way to keep track of upcoming events you want to watch; to add something to your reminders, simply tap the alarm clock icon in the upper right of a program's thumbnail.
Streaming Quality and Performance
I tuned in to Dazn's coverage of the lightweight unification fight between Hooker and Ramirez, as well as a few of the night's undercard fights.
Streaming quality was excellent (though limited to 720p and about 60 FPS), with only the rare stutter.
YouTube TV is one of the few services that streams live content in 1080p, though fuboTV does offer some 4K broadcasts.
In order to get its highest quality streams, Dazn recommends internet speeds of at least 8Mbps (download).
I tested performance over my home Ethernet connection (200Mbps) and had no performance issues.
I also tested Dazn's mobile app over the same network and had no issues launching and streaming an episode of Change Up.
Accessibility and Extras
Dazn offers good customization options for closed captioning, with the ability to change the color, font, size, and style as well as the text background.
As noted above, not all of Dazn's content supports closed captioning, which is a bit disappointing.
Dazn does not include any parental control options, but they are not really needed, since the platform does not include much kid-friendly content.
In other words, there wouldn't be much reason to give your child unsupervised access in the first place.
Dazn does not include any DVR features, but all of the fights that air on the platform are available to replay and rewind, as soon as they air.
In effect, that means you can scrub back the beginning of a fight no matter when you tune into the broadcast.
This is better than fuboTV's and DirecTV Now's similar features, which allow you to restart (but sometimes not scrub through) live broadcasts.
Dazn and VPN
Some video streaming services, such as Dazn, may not work if you are connected to a VPN.
Dazn's stated reasons for not allowing VPNs is that its content distribution rights are strictly tied to a user's location.
Take, for example, the fact that in other countries, Dazn has rights to stream many more of the US's national sports leagues, something residents of the US cannot access with the service.
I tried accessing Dazn after connecting to a US-based Mullvad server.
The service detected that I was using a VPN and prevented me from streaming content on both the web and mobile.
It is unlikely that you will find a VPN that works with all of your video streaming services, especially since many services actively work to detect and block VPN use.
In other words, even if your VPN works with your video streaming service today, it may not in the future.
Choose a VPN based on more important factors instead, such as its security, speed, and value.
Not Quite a Knockout
Dazn is a solid option for fans of boxing and MMA action, especially considering that you don't have to pay any additional PPV fees over its subscription cost.
However, its secondary content, such as the daily MLB show, Change Up, and a few other sports, such as darts, fishing, and gymnastics don't add much value.
We would also like to see 1080p streams as well.
For coverage of more-popular national sports leagues, you'll have to look elsewhere.
We haven't yet designated an Editors' Choice specifically for the sports streaming category.
Dazn and ESPN+ are too limited in their sports coverage, even if they are relatively affordable.
fuboTV offers the best variety of sports coverage, but its livestreams are limited to 720p, as are those of Hulu and Sling.
YouTube TV streams many channels in 1080p, but doesn't include as many sports channels as fuboTV.
PlayStation Vue and DirecTV Now cost more than others for equivalent sports coverage.
Our Editors' Choices for the streaming live TV are YouTube TV and Hulu + LiveTV.
YouTube TV offers top-notch apps and an impressive channel selection.
Hulu is an excellent value, since a subscription includes access to its on-demand streaming library.
Netflix is our Editors' Choice for on-demand streaming; it offers an excellent collection of movies and original shows.
The Bottom Line
Dazn reliably serves its boxing and MMA fan base without PPV fees, but it doesn't have much to offer to mainstream sports fans and general audiences.
