- WWE and UFC have been surging in popularity.
- Their growth has helped owner TKO grow its media rights, sponsorship, and live events businesses.
- The company plans to expand its international events business and more to build on the momentum.
The owner of Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Wrestling Entertainment is going for a technical knockout.
TKO Holdings' combat sports are surging in popularity after boosting content output and pursuing new high-profile distribution deals.
WWE kicked off this month a $5 billion, 10-year deal with Netflix to stream its "Monday Night Raw." The debut drew 4.9 million views globally — including more in the US viewers than the program averaged on cable TV last year — and viewership has stayed strong in the early weeks.
UFC, meanwhile, has become a content factory. According to an analysis by influencer-marketing company CreatorIQ, the number of creators posting about UFC rose to 6,400 as of November 2024 from 1,400 in 2018. That's helped boost the volume of social media posts about UFC.
The MMA promoter is now out looking for a lucrative new media-rights deal of its own.
"Sports is one of those things where everybody wants to watch live," Eric Handler, an analyst at Roth Capital Partners, told Business Insider. "You need to watch it as it happens, so UFC is benefiting from the increasing popularity of sports and the seismic shifts in the media landscape."
Combat sports have always had a cult following. Maybe it's the entertainment value of watching someone getting body-slammed through a table or the exciting combination of punches landing all over the opponent. With UFC and WWE, TKO is having a real moment and bringing combat sports into the mainstream.
WWE's Nick Khan and UFC's Dana White helped take TKO to new heights
TKO acquired WWE in 2023, bringing the wrestling brand under the same roof as MMA promoter UFC. The group has since focused on expanding the possibilities for fight sports and entertainment through media deals, sponsorships, and live events.
TKO's revenue doubled year over year to $2.2 billion during the first three quarters of 2024, mainly due to the acquisition of WWE, which grew revenue by 14% year over year last quarter and adjusted profit by 72%.
WWE president Nick Khan, a former cohead of TV at talent agency CAA who joined the company in 2020, has shepherded its impressive growth. Khan sits on TKO's board of directors and has helped land some of the company's biggest streaming deals, including its Netflix deal and an earlier agreement to stream WWE Network on Peacock.
"They definitely put together a good management team," David Joyce, an analyst at Seaport Research Partners, told Business Insider.
"WWE had done a wise move, bringing in Nick Khan from CAA, who knows the sports talent, management, and media business well."
UFC is out looking for a similarly lucrative media-rights deal. TKO financial chief Andrew Schleimer told BI that UFC's US domestic media rights renewal is a top priority for 2025. Bloomberg reported the company is eying a package worth $1 billion when its current contract with ESPN expires at the end of this year.
Dana White, UFC's longtime president, has been one of the company's biggest promoters. He pushed the league and its fighters to embrace social media more than a decade ago. The league itself has about 46 million Instagram followers — that's more than the NFL — and White has 10 million followers on Instagram and 6.8 million on X. He constantly plugs the league and looks for new places for events to put on, getting content to fans and marketing the UFC.
UFC hasn't been without controversy during White's time at the helm. Last October, a Las Vegas judge approved a class action settlement that requires the UFC to pay $375 million to fighters who accused the company of violating antitrust laws to block rival promoters and maintain exclusive deals with fighters. The UFC has denied any wrongdoing.
Still, White's star has continued to rise, even beyond the world of sports. He's amassed influence in political and tech spheres as a longtime ally of President Donald Trump and through his recent appointment to the board of Mark Zuckerberg's Meta.
TKO's expansion plans
TKO has shown particular strength in expanding the young global fan base for its sports brands. Schleimer said TKO has over 1 billion fans worldwide in 75 countries. Many of them — 48% across TKO's properties — are ages 18 to 34 years old, the company said.
"The globalization of media and entertainment through streaming has also opened up a lot of new markets to sports that used to be very regionalized," said Joyce. "So there's really been a number of things in the industry that have really come together with TKO."
Schleimer, TKO's CFO, told BI that in 2025, the company's growth plans include renewing UFC's US media-rights deal, expanding TKO's events business, and adding new brand partners, particularly WWE.
To this end, in October, TKO agreed to acquire from Endeavor the Professional Bull Riders league, sports media rights and consulting company IMG, and events business On Location for $3.25 billion to expand its reach in the sports industry. The deal is expected to close in early 2025.
"Sponsorship is still a big area of upside for them, overall, TKO, mostly for WWE, and promotion of bull riding once that closes," said Joyce. "Global corporate marketers have realized that they need to be allocating more spending to live events and consumer experiences.
