Sports streaming platform DAZN has added another league to its viewing options for Canadian users: International Basketball Federation (FIBA).
FIBA is a sports federation that governs international competition in basketball. It holds both a Women’s and Men’s World Cup every four years, in which teams compete for the Naismith Trophy — named after basketball’s Canadian creator James Naismith.
DAZN, which holds exclusive rights to NFL Game Pass in Canada, forged a five year agreement with FIBA, which will run from 2017 to 2021.
DAZN says it will broadcast every Team Canada game from all FIBA’s Men’s and Women’s tournaments, as well as the Federation’s showcase events, the Women’s FIBA Basketball World Cup 2018 and the Men’s FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019.
The Canadian Men’s team will begin its pursuit of the Naismith Trophy in the Americas Qualifiers, where 16 teams will vie for seven spots. Canada will face Bahamas, Dominican Republic and the United States Virgin Islands. Their first game in the qualifiers is against Bahamas and takes place in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Friday November 24th at 8:15 p.m. AST on DAZN.
DAZN launched in Canada in July 2017. The $20 CAD monthly service offers NFL Game Pass content along with Sunday games previously offered in NFL Sunday Ticket and NFL RedZone by Canadian cable and satellite providers. It also offers European Soccer leagues La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1, as well as Autumn Rugby Internationals and Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League, among other things.
While greeted with excitement, complaints about quality issues with NFL broadcasts quickly began to pile up. In September, the platform offered refunds, an apology and a promise to improve the service in the future.
DAZN first launched in Austria, Germany, Japan and Switzerland in 2016. It is privately owned by Perform Group, a global sports media company created through a merger between a sport-focused web and mobile company, and a digital sports rights agency.
Source: DAZN
