The UFC experienced a rare decrease in revenue for the third quarter in 2024 but TKO Group Holdings as a whole still earned a profit with a massive year ahead in 2025.
New financial disclosures were released on Wednesday with the UFC revenue dropping 11 percent — $42.6 million to $354.9 million — primarily due to one less pay-per-view and two less Fight Night events compared to the same time period in 2023. The revenue loss from media rights was $50.4 million but that was partially offset by an increase in sponsorship revenue, which was up $10.2 million.
Despite holding three fewer events during the third quarter in 2024 compared to 2024, the UFC still stayed almost dead even when it came to live event revenue due to an increase in overall ticket sales year over year.
While the UFC reported a loss in revenue for the quarter, TKO Group Holdings — the parent company for UFC and WWE — still increased overall revenue by 52 percent — $232.1 million to $681.2 million. That increase was thanks to WWE with $242.7 million in revenue.
“TKO’s solid third quarter results reflect continued strength across UFC and WWE, particularly in live events and brand partnerships,” TKO CEO Ari Emanuel said in a press release along with the financial results. “In light of this continued momentum, we now expect to deliver at the upper end of our full-year 2024 guidance range for both revenue and Adjusted EBITDA.
“Additionally, two weeks ago we announced the authorization of a robust capital return program and an agreement to acquire industry-leading sports assets that will power our profile, give us greater scale, strengthen our position in the sports marketplace, and accelerate returns for shareholders. Just over a year since UFC and WWE came together to form TKO, our conviction in this business is as strong as ever.”
The latest financial disclosure also noted the conclusion of one of two UFC antitrust lawsuits after a settlement was reached and preliminary approval was handed down by the courts. Under terms of the agreement, TKO is set to pay out $375 million to settle the first of the lawsuits with a $125 million payment already put into escrow in October with the remaining $250 million expected to be paid in 2025.
A second antitrust lawsuit against the UFC is still pending.
The next year is expected to be huge for TKO with WWE kicking off a massive 10 year, $5 billion deal to move its flagship series Monday Night Raw to Netflix while Smackdown goes to USA Network. WWE’s other program titled NXT already began airing on the CW in a separate deal that was previously closed.
Meanwhile, the UFC is expected to begin negotiations on a new TV deal in early 2025 as the current contract with ESPN comes to a close at the end of next year. Most experts believe the UFC is in for a huge increase in overall media rights, especially with the MMA promotion as the only major sports property up for grabs for potential TV or streaming partners for the next three years.
It’s possible that the UFC potentially triples its broadcast rights deal from the one struck with ESPN that was initially worth $1.5 billion over five years (an additional two years was eventually added along with ESPN taking over pay-per-view broadcasts for the UFC).
