In today’s episode, we’re looking at the newly released TKO financials and discussing their quarterly earnings call. We discuss whether they actually lost money on UFC Freedom 250, and how long we think Dana White can continue being the face of the UFC. We weigh in on DAZN’s big moves in sports, as well as how well Zuffa Boxing is doing. There’s a lot more, so make sure to follow along with our outline as you listen:
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Are there any new filings or updates to the UFC antitrust cases?
Has any other news come out about the Ali Revival Act since last week’s unveiling of the new Senate version?
Paramount’s Q2 streaming profit jumped up 44% to $366M. “That growth was primarily fueled by Paramount+, which added 2 million subscribers for a total of 81.6 million globally” ...sports programming, including UFC, cited as a driver. Considering all their other sports programming, how big a part did UFC have in your estimation?
TKO’s finances came out this week. What are the main takeaways?
They mentioned a $30 million dollar loss from the UFC Freedom 250 event. Does this seem accurate?
TKO’s Mark Shapiro was recently quoted thusly: Our reputation is that we know how to stage big events. We know how to build property and assets like this. We know how to create attention and set the stage for these fighters. And, Dana White has a reputation of always putting fighters and fans first. So, one of the reasons our plan has accelerated the way it has is because fighters want to fight underneath a business being run by Dana White.’ How long do you think a nearly 60-year-old Dana White can keep being the front man for UFC in the capacity he’s in now–its major star?
Shapiro, when asked about the PFL/MVP merger: ‘I would say that clearly on an individual, standalone basis, these promotions, both MVP and PFL were not necessarily sustainable. Now they’ve come together and we’ll see what they can conjure up. What we know is that competition’s always made us stronger and a rising tide lifts all boats.’ Is he right?
Shapiro also stated since the start of the year, 20M subscriber households have watched more than 200M hours of UFC programming on Paramount+ delivering viewership more than 23x the average UFC PPV event over the past 2 years. How much of that do you think was the White House event and how much was Conor’s July event?
TKO exec. Andrew Schleimer had this to say about Zuffa Boxing: ‘This is low risk, but allows us to have our finger prints on a third combat sport vertical with a path for meaningful equity ownership that will ultimately enhance our firm value. We’re here to build something, but we have no funding obligations and we don’t take financial risks...what you see, so far, is a product that’s ahead of schedule.’ What exactly is he saying here?
Do we have any idea how Zuffa Boxing is doing based on their filings?
DAZN has been making some very big moves in sports. What’s going on there?
Keshawn Davis rejected a $2.13M purse bid to fight Devon Haney. What are your thoughts on that amid complaints of “We can’t have nice things in boxing”?
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