Professional Fighters League (PFL) secures $28m investment

[cutch]

The "league" lasts a total of 2 fights each between 12 fighters then its a straight knockout. Its not even as if they are in groups (outside weight classes) like the world cup or something, then maybe it would be more of a league.

 

[ThunderL1ps]

A fool and his money are soon parted.

 

[skylolow]

You guys all arguing about PFL's tournaments/system, the system isn't necessarily the problem. The problem is the MMA market is so heavily saturated its hard to make money if your not the UFC. I don't know how many orgs needs to fail before investors realize this. These might be some smart ass people but the history of MMA speaks for itself. Only one org ever has been able to reap major profits off this sport and everyone else failed or barely stays afloat as some regional promotion(or whatever you want to call it). I don't see that changing.

Great for the PFL and great for fighters. I hope they find some success but struggling to get 150K people to tune in isn't doing them any favors in trying to get a better media deal.


P.S.: Love it or Hate it there isn't a chance in hell PFL ever makes money doing what they are doing. It just doesn't add up and we don't even know the financials. But anyone that has some understanding of this business and the history of it knows on the surface this is so wildly out of whack of what we do know that it can't possibly survive over time. I don't think the model can ever be self sustained.

 

[BakaSurvivor]

As always, good shit, @FrankieNYC. Love your posts.

 

[null]

You guys all arguing about PFL's tournaments/system, the system isn't necessarily the problem. The problem is the MMA market is so heavily saturated its hard to make money if your not the UFC. I don't know how many orgs needs to fail before investors realize this. These might be some smart ass people but the history of MMA speaks for itself. Only one org ever has been able to reap major profits off this sport and everyone else failed or barely stays afloat as some regional promotion(or whatever you want to call it). I don't see that changing.

Great for the PFL and great for fighters. I hope they find some success but struggling to get 150K people to tune in isn't doing them any favors in trying to get a better media deal.


P.S.: Love it or Hate it there isn't a chance in hell PFL ever makes money doing what they are doing. It just doesn't add up and we don't even know the financials. But anyone that has some understanding of this business and the history of it knows on the surface this is so wildly out of whack of what we do know that it can't possibly survive over time. I don't think the model can ever be self sustained.

This could almost be a copy-pasta from 2012 with WSOF in place of PFL in the text. Let's enjoy PFL as long as it lasts even if they never make a nickel of profit in the long run.

 

[skylolow]

This could almost be a copy-pasta from 2012 with WSOF in place of PFL in the text. Let's enjoy PFL as long as it lasts even if they never make a nickel of profit in the long run.

And to this date I highly doubt PFL/WSOF has ever had a profitable year. In fact, I doubt they even broke even. With WSOF they never had these big paydays coming like they do now. It will make the bottom line look even worse.

I really don't know where WSOF has got there money in the past. Who ever is the smooth talker with these investors from WSOF to PFL is a hell of sales man. How they have stayed in business is just amazing. How they continue to raise money is just mind boggling. Poor attendance, poor ratings, limited sponsors, and probably a fairly low paying TV deal. Everything about them smells like failure is just right over the horizon, yet some how they continue to chug along with little to no growth year after year.

P.S.: Personally, I think there might be some shady business going on behind the scenes. To what extent I don't know, I just know nothing adds up to something people would invest millions in over and over.

 

[Danespina]

And to this date I highly doubt PFL/WSOF has ever had a profitable year. In fact, I doubt they even broke even. With WSOF they never had these big paydays coming like they do now. It will make the bottom line look even worse.

I really don't know where WSOF has got there money in the past. Who ever is the smooth talker with these investors from WSOF to PFL is a hell of sales man. How they have stayed in business is just amazing. How they continue to raise money is just mind boggling. Poor attendance, poor ratings, limited sponsors, and probably a fairly low paying TV deal. Everything about them smells like failure is just right over the horizon, yet some how they continue to chug along with little to no growth year after year.

P.S.: Personally, I think there might be some shady business going on behind the scenes. To what extent I don't know, I just know nothing adds up to something people would invest millions in over and over.

What the Survivor producer said at least made some sense to me. It was something along the lines of streaming services are competing for content, so build PFL up into something half decent and a DAZN or something should eventually pick them up. TV ratings are becoming a thing of the past.

 

[skylolow]

What the Survivor producer said at least made some sense to me. It was something along the lines of streaming services are competing for content, so build PFL up into something half decent and a DAZN or something should eventually pick them up. TV ratings are becoming a thing of the past.

I can see this. But I also wonder how long the future of all these various streaming services will survive. I think the major players will always be around as they are light years ahead of everyone else. But many of these off the wall ones are completely operating on investor money. If subscribers don't come through it's over. I'm just not sure how many niche streaming services the market will bare.

P.S.: I wonder how much a PFL show that draws 110K-125K in ratings is really worth to a streaming service. Bellator has had some good success overall on TV and history. WSOF/PFL has been doing a 1/4 if not less on avg. for ratings. Bellator was able to pull about 30 million so does that mean PFL might be worth 7 to 8 million a year. That doesn't even cover fighter pay and tournament winners. I think they need a deal in that 25 million range to be sustainable.

 

[Danespina]

I can see this. But I also wonder how long the future of all these various streaming services will survive. I think the major players will always be around as they are light years ahead of everyone else. But many of these off the wall ones are completely operating on investor money. If subscribers don't come through it's over. I'm just not sure how many niche streaming services the market will bare.

P.S.: I wonder how much a PFL show that draws 110K-125K in ratings is really worth to a streaming service. Bellator has had some good success overall on TV and history. WSOF/PFL has been doing a 1/4 if not less on avg. for ratings. Bellator was able to pull about 30 million so does that mean PFL might be worth 7 to 8 million a year. That doesn't even cover fighter pay and tournament winners. I think they need a deal in that 25 million range to be sustainable.

Yeah I don't know the answer to your questions, on what streaming services will die or which will survive. But I think there's a good 3-4 years right now where everyone is going to try it and content creators will profit.

I noticed MGM is a PFL investor for example, and they are starting a streaming service and looking for content, so maybe that's an option. Maybe NBC will look to create something too.

I'd also note that PFL drawing 125k in TV ratings probably isn't the main thing investors are looking at. We don't know the facebook numbers and all that. But according to the CEO 2.5 million people viewed PFL 4. I'm sure that's bloated, but that still tells us there's way more than 100k watching.