In an unprecedented move, there are three major sports channels that will broadcast the fight live:
- DAZN
- Sky Sports Box Office
- TNT Sports Box Office
Usually, sports fans may only have one or two choices when it comes to viewing these major boxing events, so the options are welcome, depending on your budget and your set-up.
To sign up to DAZN, all you need to do is create an account and include the standard details, such as your email address and bank account numbers.
Then, you can pay for the monthly plan of £24.99 (which rose from £19.99 in April) and watch the action by downloading the app. You can do this on an Amazon Fire stick, Sky box, Smart TV or games console.
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How to buy on box office
For Sky Sports Box Office, the event costs pretty much the same as DAZN, at £24.95 for Sky customers in the UK.
To purchase, you need to simply press the Box Office button on your remote, select the Fury vs Usyk fight and then follow the payment prompts on the screen. You may need your Sky pin if you have that verification set up.
If you have Sky Q, it’s a similar process, whereby you can select the Sky Sports Box Office channel in the sports section of the home menu.
If you wish to do this by phone, you can call 03442 410888, but this comes with a £2 booking fee, which rises to £5 if you book the event after midnight of 17 May (a day before the bout).
For Sky Q and Sky+ customers, you can also book the event online.
No cancellation required
Choosing Sky Sports Box Office also means you can watch two full repeats of the action at 10am and 10pm the following day (19 May).
As this is a purchase for the stand-alone event, there is no added subscription or agreement to continue paying for the product after the fight.
Alternatively, to avoid any subscriptions, you may wish to watch the event with TNT Sports Box Office coverage.
This costs £24.99 for UK viewers and you can watch the event through a range of channels including Prime Video and Discovery+. You do not need a Prime Video subscription to watch the fight through that means.
Adding to the many ways to access the fight, you can also watch the TNT Box Office option on Virgin Media TV and EE TV channel 494.
Not to be confused with the sports subscription service TNT Sports, which shows live Premier League matches as part of its sports package, the Box Office acquisition is for that night’s entertainment only.
You do not need to cancel anything after the fight.
In the boxing ring: My fight to cancel and get a refund
While it’s a pretty simple process to sign up for DAZN, based on my previous experience, cancellation is anything but easy.
The cancellation policy stated on its website includes these steps:
- Go to www.dazn.com and sign in
- Select ‘My Account’ from the menu and then ‘Subscription’
- Select ‘Cancel subscription’
- A pop-up will appear with contact details to speak to an agent to cancel your account. You can either chat to an agent by clicking the ‘Chat to an agent’ button, or you can call the freephone number provided during the opening hours shown on the screen
- Once you have cancelled your account, you will receive an email confirming your cancellation
I signed up to DAZN to watch the Anthony Joshua v Francis Ngannou bout on 8 March. I opted to buy the monthly subscription, which cost £19.99 at that time, with a view to cancelling the membership after the fight.
This is because, like many, I wanted the subscription just to watch that one fight.
On 5 April, I went through the advertised process and opened a chat with the AI-powered chatbot. I was then transferred to a DAZN agent who asked me what my query was.
I explained how I wished to cancel because I didn’t watch enough boxing to merit a subscription to DAZN.
However, a lengthy back-and-forth of questions and answers ensued, and I was encouraged to continue my subscription as the agent showcased its upcoming sports schedule. But I repeated that I simply wanted the subscription cancelled.
Unwanted ‘knockout deals’
Despite my persistence, the agent offered me a “knockout” deal, which left me seeing red as all I wanted to do was to end the subscription.
Finally, after the equivalent of seven boxing rounds (21 minutes), my request to cancel was accepted and I ended the conversation confident that it would be processed.
But, on 24 April, a further £19.99 was debited from my account. So, round two, I went through the chatbot as before and shared the issue about the failed cancellation.
Even though I explained how the cancellation was not being processed, I was then blindsided with more events coming up on DAZN, including its MMA coverage.
After another 20 minutes of communicating on the chat, the message finally got through that the membership was purchased for one fight only and the cancellation would go through.
I then asked if a refund would be processed due to its error, but was told I had to take this up with customer services via email.
I emailed the customer support team and was told it “understood my concern and regret for the inconvenience caused”.
The team then asked me to send them a screenshot of cancellation confirmation, so that it could “assist me better”. But, by this point, the chat history didn’t show the conversation, so I wasn’t able to provide the information.
Refund swiftly sent after light sparring
I requested a copy of the chat history and said I was unable to provide it. Surprisingly, later that day I received a reply that read: “Please accept our sincere apologies for any frustration or inconvenience this has caused.
“We have successfully cancelled your subscription effective immediately and we are glad to inform you that your refund has been successfully processed.”
The refund was then swiftly sent to the debited card the following day, much sooner than the five to seven days mentioned in the reply.
Meanwhile, it’s not just this YourMoney.com writer who has had to go 12 rounds trying to cancel their DAZN account, either.
Other fans have vented their frustrations on X (formerly Twitter); one fan wrote: “Be aware DAZN are extremely hard to cancel if you opt for the single fight introduction package. Had to go through app then told can only cancel via desktop. After working through desktop told call only. Called and he wouldn’t agree to cancel until half hour then hung up on me.”
One DAZN customer asked: “Takes one minute to cancel Netflix, Amazon, NowTV, BTSport [TNT Sports], why can’t DAZN follow suit?”
A third fan posted: “They make it so drawn out to cancel, worst customer service with a streaming service I have encountered.”
‘Awful lot of customers struggling with subscriptions’
Ahead of Tyson Fury’s battle to win all four heavyweight championships in Saudi Arabia, Katie Goss from Resolver said she wasn’t surprised by the difficulties in cancelling a DAZN account but was still disappointed.
Goss said: “We see an awful lot of consumers these days struggling with seemingly ‘uncancellable’ contracts and subscriptions.
“In general consumers must be careful when signing up to subscriptions or free trials – simply because so many companies then use this to trap people into financial obligations they don’t want.
“The excessive offers you mention are just another one of the many underhand tactics companies use to exploit people. It really shouldn’t be difficult to cancel a contract you don’t want.”
The writer advised boxing fans who use the service to follow the process to cancel a DAZN policy if they wish and ensure they keep records of their attempts.
Keep evidence of cancellation
This can be done with screenshots or even recording a phone call. With this evidence, your bank can get involved to help recover the charges, if necessary.
Goss added: “I do note that DAZN states in its policy, ‘DAZN does not participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.’
“This seems deliberately designed to prevent consumers from appealing to a regulatory body – so it seems very important that consumers are made aware of the risks of signing up to DAZN, given that there is little independent oversight.”
The independent resolution service has since added DAZN to its tool that helps customers process a complaint against a business through a templated letter.
However, Goss added that “it sounds like their contact process is designed to be deliberately obstructive and, frankly, that they just ignore their customers who want to cancel.”
Response from DAZN
The broadcaster reacted to my and many others’ experience of cancelling a subscription with them.
It said: “DAZN, like most subscription services, offers a variety of ways to access our services. Customers must always be aware of the type of subscription they are signing up to, and DAZN makes sure that the terms and conditions are accessible and clear.
“DAZN is constantly striving to improve its customer service systems and has made numerous changes over the past 12 months.
“This does include limited retention offers, but also expedited routes to cancellation, should that be the ultimate desire of the customer and is applicable to the subscription they originally signed up for.”
Reminders from the broadcaster:
- UK customers between 9am and 9pm will be given the option to either call our dedicated voice retention team or contact us via chat. Outside then, the customer will be asked to chat.
- Should all agents be up to capacity with the number of chats they can handle, the ‘bot’ automatically cancels the accounts without agent interaction – providing a more seamless journey for our customers.
- [For] customers signing up for a 12-month discounted contract who attempt to cancel after a month, the chatbot will handle this and apply the cancellation date as the end of their 12-month term, so they will continue to be charged.
- Chat history is available via ticket numbers for all customers on all interactions.
- Eligible refunds can be processed via chat.
- After Fury vs Usyk, if volumes are at unmanageable levels, the chatbot will perform the cancellation. For 12-month-contract customers who attempt to cancel, the chatbot will cancel the auto-renew so the account will end at the end of the 12-month contract, with the customer still able to enjoy content until the end of the 12 months.
YourMoney.com asked DAZN what constituted “unmanageable levels” before the chatbot automatically processes the publication and is awaiting a response.
