TKO Group Holdings has announced record revenues for both its UFC and WWE properties for the financial year 2023 and is seeking to capitalise on this for its first full financial year in 2024.
The publicly listed company was announced last April after media and entertainment agency Endeavour Group acquired the WWE for a $9.3bn valuation, merging the global wrestling company with the UFC – also owned by Endeavour – to form a “$21+ billion live sports and entertainment powerhouse”.
The venture has so far offered highlights such as a landmark Netflix broadcast deal for WWE’s RAW, as well as UFC inking several high-profile sponsorship deals such as announcing a new official beer partnership.
Endeavour and TKO CEO, Ari Emanuel, hailed the first few months of operations at the company and believes this will now serve as a blueprint for future “topline growth and margin expansion” for the year to come.
He said: “TKO is off to a strong start following record financial performance in 2023 at both UFC and WWE.
“We secured Anheuser-Busch as the official beer partner of UFC, delivered a transformative deal to bring WWE’s Raw to Netflix beginning in 2025, and expanded our international footprint in important growth markets.
“We have more conviction than ever in the combination of these businesses and TKO’s ability to drive topline growth and margin expansion, generate meaningful free cash flow, and deliver sustainable long-term value for shareholders.”
Officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange on 12 September, the full year financial TKO results accounted for the dates from when it was officially listed, to 31 December.
Total revenue for TKO for FY2023 was $1.675bn, a 47% increase year-over-year from the $1.14bn achieved in 2022. Adjusted EBITDA increased YoY by 29% from $628.7m in 2022, to $809m in 2023.
Net income was $175.7m, a decrease of $213.3m from $389m in the prior year period due to an increase in operating expenses being partially offset by the revenue uptick.
UFC
Revenue for the UFC for FY2023 stood at $1.29bn, a 13% increase from revenue in FY2022 of $1.14bn. Revenue also increased, from $271.7m in Q4 ‘2022, to $282.8m in Q4’ 2023.
Adjusted EBITDA for FY2023 was $755.7m, an 11% increase from $680.6m in FY2022. However, Q4 ‘2023 decreased YoY to $142.9m from $154.1m in Q4 ‘2022.
UFC revenue increased for all four major categories year-to-year: media rights and content (9.6%), live events (34%), sponsorships (18%) and consumer products (7%).
Media rights and content was the primary revenue driver for the UFC in 2023, attributing to $76.2m in total, along with $42.6m from live events. The UFC is expected to begin negotiations for its next broadcast rights deal this year as its current seven-year, $1.5bn agreement with ESPN expires in 2025.
The global mixed martial arts organisation has also been heavily active in sponsorship deals too, which accounted for $196.3m of the UFC’s total revenue for 2023.
Bud Light – a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch – became the UFC’s official beer partner, whilst the promotion also inked deals with Betclic, Bet365 and the Black Rifle Coffee Company, to name a few.
It was also announced earlier this year that the sponsorship teams from both the UFC and WWE would merge under the TKO umbrella to open up more sponsorship and partnership opportunities through this streamlined approach.
WWE
Revenue for WWE increased by 542% quarter-over-quarter in Q4, skyrocketing to $331.2m from $51.6m in Q3. However, it is worth noting that Q3 revenue is accounted for from September 12 – 30, 2023.
Adjusted EBITDA also rose as a result, from $22m in Q3 to $141m in the fourth quarter.
Across the four revenue categories, WWE media rights and content revenue was $212.2m, $82.3m for live events, $15.4m for sponsorships and $21.3m for consumer products.
Whilst TKO only acknowledges financial results since WWE joined the publicly listed entity on 12 September, the financial report revealed that WWE’s total revenue – from 1 January to 11 September – was $1.326bn, a 3% increase from the $1.292bn made in FY2022.
The improvement has been attributed to an uptick in WWE live event revenue, as well as media rights and content and sponsorship revenue. Despite this, consumer product revenue declined from last year, which TKO stated was related to a disclosed transition of WWE’s digital retail platform to Fanatics.
Whilst it won’t be accounted for until it takes effect in 2025, WWE signed a landmark broadcast deal with Netflix in January to move its flagship weekly RAW programme to streaming for the first time in the show’s 31-year history, in a reported $5bn deal across 10 years.
The WWE also agreed to a broadcast rights deal with the USA Network for its other weekly programme SmackDown, to take effect in October 2024. The five-year agreement is worth a reported $1.4bn, with NBC – USA Network’s parent company – paying $287m annually, a 40% increase from the current deal the WWE has in place for SmackDown with FOX.
2024 Forecasts
For FY2024, TKO is targeting total revenues of $2.575bn – $2.65bn, and an adjusted EBITDA of $1.15bn – $1.17bn. The company is also targeting free cash flow conversion in excess of 50%.
April is shaping to be a major revenue grower for TKO, as WWE is scheduled to host its biggest event of the year, WrestleMania, across two days on April 6-7 at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, accompanied by week-long events leading up to the major show.
Furthermore, the UFC is also holding a landmark event a week after WrestleMania, with UFC 300 scheduled to take place on 13 April at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas with similar week-long events leading up to the company’s 300th PPV show.
