News Financial state of the UFC & Bellator - Article

[Bobby Boulders]

It works on my end

https://www.bjpenn.com/mma-news/ufc...ellator-looking-back-at-2018-forward-to-2019/

Lol@ the writer of this article.

Didn't expect that lol.

 

[ocfightfan]

WME conned Sherdog

On a regular basis.

 

[AJ Garcia]

@FrankieNYC is always makes for a good interview and has tons of good info. Good shit.

 

[FrankieNYC]

@FrankieNYC is always makes for a good interview and has tons of good info. Good shit.

Thank you buddy.
As someone trying to get to the next level in the business, I am glad you appreciate these type things.
Looking forward to your next fight.

How is your son doing?

 

[HankScorpio]

There is a lot of investors that look at what the UFC sold for and think they can follow in the same foot steps.

Some of the players that might be interested in Bellator could be some of the same groups that bid on the UFC or links to those groups.

It will be very interesting to see what they get for Bellator. It will literally be the only org outside the UFC that has ever sold that is making a profit. If Viacom offers some sort of media outlet deal with the sale I think it will sell for a hell of a lot more than people would ever think on here.

I wonder if we can't establish an over/under, just for fun. I haven't got a clue what Bellator would sell for but I would most likely take the under.

 

[Psychedelic]

@FrankieNYC would you consider shedding the veil of anonymity, and conducting these interviews with your real name / face ?

 

[skylolow]

I wonder if we can't establish an over/under, just for fun. I haven't got a clue what Bellator would sell for but I would most likely take the under.

Well the sooner they sell the better. They got roughly 33 million a year coming in for the next 3 years with DAZN and option for 2 more years. So they have a guaranteed 100 million coming in. Plus if Viacom offers a media deal on one of there cable channels for say 5 years, 7 to 10 million a year or something that could add another 35 million to 50 million coming in. Coker has done well with getting attendance up also so that is good news for investors. Huge fight library that some things could be done to help profit off that.

I guess I don't know what it would be worth. Most orgs that sold have been a mess behind the scenes with many times millions in debt. Strikeforce sold for a reported 40 million and I believe that number included some debt pay off, though it did have a little bit left of a media deal. Nice fight library with them also. Pride sold around 60 million to 70 million and was more or less dead on arrival. I have no ideal what they bought IFL,WEC(had TV deal left and large fight library), or WFA for.

I think the over under would really depend if Viacom offered in a media deal with them. Without Viacom media deal maybe 125 to 175 million with a Viacom media deal maybe 250 million depending on the terms. I don't how to value something that has more or less loss money every year and has generated roughly 20 million in revenue the last year. I know Coker has always ran with a pretty small crew. So I don't think there is much fat to trim. They will be positive this year but who knows how much. So I guess we can say they'll have about 50 million in revenue this year. I have no ideal what kind of debt they carry if any. But I'd think they'd make a good 15-20 million off the 50 million this year with all things being equal.

 

[skylolow]

100%

Don't forget though ... we don't know they are up for sale for sure
I wouldn't doubt it mainly because ...
1. It is a good time to sell
2. They gave another content distributor their content
3. Viacom met with WME about UFC content last May. No way UFC would deal with them if they were owners of Bellator

Sure all seems to point that way.

 

[FrankieNYC]

Sure all seems to point that way.

Here is the thing too
Only Dizz has said that they are selling.
So it might be they are listening but did not put it up for sale & he heard someone made an offer.

When UFC saw that Fox was offering $3b+, they decided to hire a company to take bids & it wound up sold.

There is a difference in "For sale" & "Ok, how much?"

 

[FrankieNYC]

Well the sooner they sell the better. They got roughly 33 million a year coming in for the next 3 years with DAZN and option for 2 more years. So they have a guaranteed 100 million coming in. Plus if Viacom offers a media deal on one of there cable channels for say 5 years, 7 to 10 million a year or something that could add another 35 million to 50 million coming in. Coker has done well with getting attendance up also so that is good news for investors. Huge fight library that some things could be done to help profit off that.

I guess I don't know what it would be worth. Most orgs that sold have been a mess behind the scenes with many times millions in debt. Strikeforce sold for a reported 40 million and I believe that number included some debt pay off, though it did have a little bit left of a media deal. Nice fight library with them also. Pride sold around 60 million to 70 million and was more or less dead on arrival. I have no ideal what they bought IFL,WEC(had TV deal left and large fight library), or WFA for.

I think the over under would really depend if Viacom offered in a media deal with them. Without Viacom media deal maybe 125 to 175 million with a Viacom media deal maybe 250 million depending on the terms. I don't how to value something that has more or less loss money every year and has generated roughly 20 million in revenue the last year. I know Coker has always ran with a pretty small crew. So I don't think there is much fat to trim. They will be positive this year but who knows how much. So I guess we can say they'll have about 50 million in revenue this year. I have no ideal what kind of debt they carry if any. But I'd think they'd make a good 15-20 million off the 50 million this year with all things being equal.

You are killing it lately in follow-up post

Covering this in about an 90 minutes as well

Edit: Not sure it was covered fully, @TheCompleteKO & I talked about a lot of stuff & had a lot of laughs though

 

[HankScorpio]

Well the sooner they sell the better. They got roughly 33 million a year coming in for the next 3 years with DAZN and option for 2 more years. So they have a guaranteed 100 million coming in. Plus if Viacom offers a media deal on one of there cable channels for say 5 years, 7 to 10 million a year or something that could add another 35 million to 50 million coming in. Coker has done well with getting attendance up also so that is good news for investors. Huge fight library that some things could be done to help profit off that.

I guess I don't know what it would be worth. Most orgs that sold have been a mess behind the scenes with many times millions in debt. Strikeforce sold for a reported 40 million and I believe that number included some debt pay off, though it did have a little bit left of a media deal. Nice fight library with them also. Pride sold around 60 million to 70 million and was more or less dead on arrival. I have no ideal what they bought IFL,WEC(had TV deal left and large fight library), or WFA for.

I think the over under would really depend if Viacom offered in a media deal with them. Without Viacom media deal maybe 125 to 175 million with a Viacom media deal maybe 250 million depending on the terms. I don't how to value something that has more or less loss money every year and has generated roughly 20 million in revenue the last year. I know Coker has always ran with a pretty small crew. So I don't think there is much fat to trim. They will be positive this year but who knows how much. So I guess we can say they'll have about 50 million in revenue this year. I have no ideal what kind of debt they carry if any. But I'd think they'd make a good 15-20 million off the 50 million this year with all things being equal.

Man, DO I think you're overvaluing. I'll take the unders on both with and without media deals.

 

[FrankieNYC]

Man, DO I think you're overvaluing. I'll take the unders on both with and without media deals.

Its a tough one to guess on
2019 rev might be 1/14-1/20 0f UFC (if they make $50m)
Profit could be 1-30-1/40 (if they make $10m)

A better year would bring down the fraction though

So if you just go by that alone @skylolow could be in the ballpark

 

[skylolow]

Man, DO I think you're overvaluing. I'll take the unders on both with and without media deals.

It just really depends on the media deals. Everyday that goes by is one less day new ownership gets to work under the DAZN deal.

Like I said Viacom is the wildcard in it all. Unfortunately I don't believe they really own a channel right now that is a fit for MMA. But maybe they offer a media deal to the new owners for x amount for x amount of years. The new owners would have to weigh the positives and negatives of taking that deal. Which will surely impact the value of Bellator to them. Either way I'm sure any buyer would at least ask for six month window to search for a new media deal and come to agreement of how much Paramount pays for each event until then. They can then shop it around and I do believe Bellator/MMA is more valuable to some other networks than Viacom right now. It won't shock me one bit if FOX (FS1) would be interested it. Bellator would offer them a lot of hours of programming with their fight library and could easily do bump shows with the events like they did with UFC. Personally, I think its the perfect fit and would probably help Bellator's long term future the most.

 

[FrankieNYC]

This made my day

Chris Harrington the newly appointed 'VP of Business Strategy" for the All Elite Wrestling (owned by the billionaire Khan family that owns Jacksonville Jaguars & Fulham FC) , emailed me to compliment me on the article & how I broke down each of the deals.

Chris is the number one business analyst that covers Wrestling & someone i learned a lot from.

Its fun to get acknowledged for a hobby