DAZN names Elena Novokreshchenova CEO of Freemium

Sports streaming powerhouse DAZN has appointed Elena Novokreshchenova in the newly created CEO of its freemium proposition.

DAZN recently launched its free offering across global markets including Germany, UK Spain, Japan, Italy, and Portugal in January. The removal of its paywall on its Women Football offering in a number of territories was at the forefront of the launch DAZN’s freemium proposition.

Novokreshchenova will lead the rollout of DAZN’s new global free tier which the streamer said will become a fundamental part of DAZN’s offering and an instrumental driver of business growth, as well as open up new avenues for rights holders and users.

DAZN’s freemium offering includes live events, video-on-demand, news, stats, archives, shoulder content, and social features.

Novokreshchenova will also oversee content proposition, interactive product experience, and reach of the new offering.

The new chief exec joins DAZN with over 20 years of experience at tech start-ups, scale-ups, and PLCs. She was most recently non-executive director at Virgin Money, with previous stints at Entain and Bridgeweave.

Commenting on her appointment, Novokreshchenova said, “I am excited to join DAZN at such a critical point in its continuing development. The business’s progress, over a short period of time, has been impressive, and leading the rollout of the global freemium offering is a fantastic opportunity. DAZN has already made significant strides in revolutionizing the sports streaming industry. I look forward to driving further growth by making the platform even more accessible to sports fans worldwide and working with partners to deliver DAZN’s products and services to an increasingly broad base of users.

Shay Segev, DAZN Group CEO, said: “DAZN’s objective is to become the one-stop application for every sports fan worldwide. We are on a fast path to creating the ultimate destination for sports fans. The development of a free tier in DAZN will aid the discoverability of DAZN’s brand and capabilities, allow more and different opportunities to transact with our users, and create a funnel to our premium sports content and services. The appointment of Elena underscores DAZN’s commitment to expanding our reach globally by bringing 1 billion users onto our platform; her expertise and leadership will be instrumental in achieving our ambitious goals”.