WALKER JACOBS JOINS DAZN AS GLOBAL CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER
DAZN APPOINTS SENIOR AMAZON EXECUTIVE TO LEAD ITS GLOBAL ADVERTISING BUSINESS
- Walker Jacobs, former Chief Revenue Officer of Twitch Advertising and Managing Director of Sports at Amazon Ads, has been appointed Global Chief Revenue Officer of DAZN Group and President of DAZN US.
- A newly created role, Walker will lead DAZN’s global Advertising and Brand Partnerships business, Team Whistle and business development in the US.
- Appointment comes at a time of rapid growth for the business as DAZN expands its reach, products, content portfolio and announces launch of global free tier.
LONDON / NEW YORK, 8 January 2024 – DAZN Group, the world’s sports entertainment platform, today announces the appointment of Walker Jacobs as Global Chief Revenue Officer and President of DAZN US.
Walker is an internationally respected sports and entertainment advertising executive with a formidable career spanning 25 years. During his time at some of the world’s leading global media companies and brands – including, most recently, Twitch and Amazon – Walker has overseen a period of remarkable transformation in advertising and media sales. Walker has an exceptional track record of using next generation technology and innovative thinking to overhaul advertising and media sales strategies to deliver increased ROI for brand partners and sponsors.
As Chief Revenue Officer of Twitch Advertising and Managing Director of Sports at Amazon Ads since 2018, Walker oversaw the strategy and success of Twitch’s global sales and marketing teams. He launched Twitch’s award-winning Brand Partnership Studio, dozens of new ad products and formats, and the Twitch Properties business unit. Walker transformed Twitch into a global business, opening new offices and recruiting teams in over a dozen new markets. In addition, he oversaw sales and marketing for Amazon Prime Video’s sports, including the launch of NFL Thursday Night Football. His team developed and introduced several significant new sports industry innovations including new ad products, measurement capabilities, and advanced attribution models. Both Twitch and Amazon Sports delivered transformational revenue growth under his leadership.
Prior to this, Walker was Chief Operating Officer of Fandom, the global entertainment superfan platform started by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and Executive Vice President and Head of Turner Digital at the global entertainment, sports and news company Turner Broadcasting, now part of Warner Brothers Discovery. During his six-year tenure at Turner, he oversaw sales for the entire portfolio including the
NBA Digital joint venture with the NBA, NCAA (including March Madness Live) in partnership with CBS
Sports, as well as CNN.com, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, PGA.com, PGA Tour, Golf.com, NASCAR.com, TBS, TNT, TruTV, Cartoon Network, Team Coco, Funny Or Die, Adult Swim, and many others.
His appointment comes at a time when DAZN is deepening its relationships with sponsors, brands and the advertising community to maximise the value of its premium rights portfolio as well as explore new commercial opportunities and monetisation models for its recently launched free tier. Walker’s experience of driving cross-platform, interactive and advanced targeting multi-channel engagement will drive this agenda.
In addition, Walker will lead Team Whistle, DAZN’s US-based social media content creation and distribution company that was acquired by the business in 2023. Team Whistle has an original content slate of over 50 sports shows and a creator network that generates five billion views per month across YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook. Finally, as President of DAZN US, Walker will lead business development in this key market and look for new commercial opportunities for DAZN to expand its US presence.
Shay Segev, DAZN Group CEO, said: “Walker’s impeccable track record of using data and technology to deliver results for brand partners will enable DAZN to maximise 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 calibre 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.”
Walker Jacobs said: “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 USA and strengthen our offering to US viewers by building strong partnerships with leagues and competitions.”
Walker currently sits on the board of directors of the American Advertising Federation and Mobile Marketing Association and has previously served on several other boards including The Ad Council and IAB.