News “Coker is killing Bellator!”

Except he obviously isn’t.





https://twitter.com/heynottheface/status/1225491035419222016?s=21

 

All I know is that I watch on DAZN now.

I’ve always found the promotion teetering between Good and Terrible, but last year had enough interesting cards that I finally got a subscription to watch 221 and 222.

Excellent report nonetheless. Great news for Bellator.

 

"DAZN cashflow, thats a major key" - DJ Khaled

 

so their saving grace is DAZN who is bleeding money every day?

 

Great news for Bellator. Must feel good to finally be in the black.

The reality of it, though, is that DAZN provided a huge cash injection to Bellator. the real test will be when the 3 years are up and DAZN decides whether or not they want to continue with the 2 year option. If they do, great news for Bellator. if they do not, Bellator is going to see a sharp decline a revenue.

Bellator on paramount has been a ratings disaster.

This may be why they are moving bellator over to showtime. Seems that they have a smaller base of fans who are willing to pay for the product, but the product itself does not have mass appeal.

Even UFC has lost a lot of its novelty.

 

With Showtimes Stephen Espinoza taking over bellator it is almost certain any kind of future relationship with Dazn is done because Stephen Espinoza and Dazn are mortal enemies.

 

DAZN are massively profitable worldwide. just not in the USA.

 

There has been no announcement that Bellator is moving to Showtime. And no, having Coker report to another division of the conglomerate is not the same thing as "Bellator moving to Showtime", which sounds like they are now going to be shown on the Showtime pay tv channel. They have a contract with DAZN in the U.S. (and Paramount Network still too) and tv rights deals all over the world. Showtime is not one of them.

 

My bad,

Have not been keeping up as well as I should. I did read that that Coker was reporting to someone new, so I did jump the gun.

Still, the overall point of my post regarding DAZN stands.

 

As a cordcutter who doesn't have cable or satellite TV or any of the cable or pay channels like Paramount Network, HBO, Showtime etc any more I love the DAZN deal since all the Bellator cards are there (and Euro ones free on the app or YouTube) plus some other MMA like KSW and lots of boxing for $99/year. I hope they renew the deal when it's up.

 

Also helps they pay most fighters peanuts.

 

Moving to DAZN saved them. People shit on it cause less people will see the product but $ talks.

The question though is what happens in a few years. Most say DAZN is only in combat sports game to hold them over until they can bid on major US sports rights and if/when that happens bye bye paying for boxing and probably mma. Maybe Bellator is save cause its really not that much money but cant see them continuing to pay 35 mill per Canelo fight and stuff. Not with what they'll have to pay to get US major sports.

If they cant get those sports rights I dont know, are they in good enough shape to continue?

 

Theres a reason they are focusing on Europe, still a lot of ground to be broken there, thats really their only viable sustainable area of growth.

hopefully the money goes toward a better product ( better fighters, better logistics team, better promotion)

 

The matchups they've been providing are casual friendly (name value)
And for us hardcore fans we watch Fedor and Rampage because we are still a tad interested in these depressing matches

The biggest issue is they haven't been developing talent and their big names have probably 1 or 2 fights left in them before they retire.

Bjiorn was bland at times but he had an eye for talent (not hype jobs but real talent) the issue with his style was he never got the casual fans attention and was better for Hardcore fans.

Coker has been lucky, getting big names like Baby Slice and Araon Pico but he rushed them both killing lots of their hype. While he feeds MVP guys who are barely pros and slowly kills his luster.

 

People keep saying they're not trying to build up younger talent but they are. Not all the pushes are successful (see Pico), but I still get what they've been trying to do with Claxton, McKee, Corrales, Horiguchi, Archuletta, Lima, MVP, Pettis, Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, and many more.

Also I feel like a lot of the Legends talent they're able to bring in is stronger than before. Yeah Fedor should retire, but a main event like Mousasi vs. Machida II or Cyborg vs. Budd is still completely valid in my eyes.

 

I doubt it. Sporting content is really valuable in this era. Combat sport is too sizeable of a niche to simply dump.

If anything if they get a major US sport that would give them more money to hold onto their assets easier.

 

Who said Bellator is moving to Showtime? Having to report to the Showtime boss is not the same as Bellator being on Showtime.

 

Haven’t been developing talent....

so AJ McKee, MacFarlane, Ruth, etc, aren’t developing talent?

 

There is only three reasons they aren't continuing to bleed money is simply the DAZN deal and Paramount rebranding and selling the channel in new markets around the world that trickles something down to Bellator. Both things have little to do with Scott Coker. Lastly, I will say Coker probably does have a little more credit in this. But it's selling the Bellator product in the European market to various media outlets and coming up with things like the European series. Mixing in his kickboxing love in some markets that take to it. It all helps to get these deals done.

Still think long term the best case scenario is Viacom sells Bellator. If Bellator could secure a US media deal and continue a deal with DAZN on some level(I don't think 35 million a year is sustainable without exclusive rights after year three) they would become very sustainable org long term. I think right now Viacom is pocketing a lot of the revenue coming in to make up on those lost years. I simply say this because Bellator's revenue has continue to increase massively yet the marketing of the product is almost nonexistent outside of the immediate MMA world like it always has been. Big reason with the Paramount number are in the shitter.