How is the UFC making money?

[Oeshon]

I don't know any of my buddies who has UFC merchandise though.
And half of my buddies are hardcore combat sports fans...
Agree with the other things though

UFC has a massive branding issue. Only time I've seen UFC gear is when it was being sold at places like Target lol. MMA gear had a bad rep even before UFC branded clothing was a big thing. Back in the day, it was all Tapout and Affliction, both horribly designed and marketed brands.

MMA swag is such an untapped market source. They need to pay more attention to stuff like the NBA.

 

[beastman]

I know this may blow your mind but most people do indeed BUY PPVs. In addition a lot of their money by selling media rights to broadcasting partners.

Below is a breakdown of UFC’s revenue sources in 2015. This from the leaked court documents from their lawsuit so we know that these are mostly accurate.
View attachment 837802
View attachment 837801

As you can see the money they make off of PPV is actually more than their broadcasting rights revenue. Though I should note that these numbers are before the ESPN deal so revenue sources may now have shifted to more heavily toward broadcasting rights.

I'm not convinced about the accuracy of those numbers, I know they are 2015, but they seem low. Hell, UFC just signed a 5 year $350,000,000 deal with Draft Kings.

 

[THEfightsAREfixed]

they sell a decent amount of proprietary hot dog branders, especially after WME acquisition

 

[You Will Vote For Dreyga]

I'm not convinced about the accuracy of those numbers, I know they are 2015, but they seem low. Hell, UFC just signed a 5 year $350,000,000 deal with Draft Kings.

These are from the court documents. These are as legit as they get. They have to be under the penalty of law.

 

[Kvothe_the_kingkiller]

I'm not convinced about the accuracy of those numbers, I know they are 2015, but they seem low. Hell, UFC just signed a 5 year $350,000,000 deal with Draft Kings.

$600m in 2015, $900m in 2020, probably ~$1.1b in 2022 (with deals like Draft Kings, and a return of live gates).

What's not to be convinced about?

But that posters point (I think) was that while overall revenue has steadily gone up, PPV revenue (% of overall revenue) has consistently decreased, from 90%+ of pre-TUF revenue to 40% of revenue in 2015, to probably 25%-30% today.

 

[TestosterOWN]

I make 13 dollars an hour working at Walmart and each paycheck I spend at least 100 dollars on the UFC store, don’t @ me bro.

 

[kingghidrah]

They're consciously keeping pay below 20%. And not just pay, but all athlete expenses.

If that's the case then Khamzat's Covid treatments have already blown the budget for the rest of fiscal year 2021

 

[WHITE ANDERSON]

they get guaranteed money from ESPN irrespective of who watches or how many PPV buys they sell. they have TV deals all over the world -- PPV buys/live gate do not account for most of the revenue.

they get money from sponsorships/advertisements

capitalism works around speculation and not any measure of real "objective" value. so UFC has a lot of investors who give the company money based on speculation on how much it is worth and how much it will be worth in the future. this is how they sold the company for four billion dollars.

also everyone is buying the UFC hot dog branders. Dana is a genius legit businessman better than donald trump

 

[Ares Black]

Fuckin Magnets how do they work??

Hi Fred

 

[horseshoe_pass man]

dude, dana stopped the streamers. it's funny, they were actually watching one guy, waiting for him to stream, so they could bust his door down, but he didnt put the stream up. I think they got the message. streams are a thing of the past now

 

[Ares Black]

Stop lying!

View attachment 837813

 

[Tweak896]

I know this may blow your mind but most people do indeed BUY PPVs. In addition a lot of their money by selling media rights to broadcasting partners.

Below is a breakdown of UFC’s revenue sources in 2015. This from the leaked court documents from their lawsuit so we know that these are mostly accurate.
View attachment 837802
View attachment 837801

As you can see the money they make off of PPV is actually more than their broadcasting rights revenue. Though I should note that these numbers are before the ESPN deal so revenue sources may now have shifted to more heavily toward broadcasting rights.

Interesting breakdown. So basically.... all broadcasting rights + PPV = 3/4 their total earnings. I guess that's what I expected.

 

[Billthebutcher]

hand over foot

 

[2sk]

by scamming fighters

 

[Tito Tapped]

What I'm dying to know is how their bar business is doing these days. People don't realize how expensive those are to broadcast but that entire industry has been decimated.

 

[kflo]

They make money from their ESPN deal, I wish I had the sources to quote but it was awhile back, someone had let out that the UFC needed to put on a set number of shows through the ESPN deal to fulfill their contract/deal. Which is why Dana went mental last year trying to put on shows.
All and all it’s why you don’t see Dana hustling for PPV numbers like before, as you say most people stream. That’s why he hasn’t been hustling to sell every card, he can put out crap like last week and still get paid regardless.

fulfilling their contract isn't an all or nothing equation.

and the espn deal is still a fraction of their overall franchise value. to think they don't care about #'s just because they have a guaranteed floor for a few years is silly.

 

[kflo]

They're consciously keeping pay below 20%. And not just pay, but all athlete expenses. So that's bonuses, insurance, etc. Shit, for all we know maybe it includes the Performance Institute (I could see someone calling that an "athlete expense".)

And they plan to cap it at 20% no matter how high revenue gets. It's well documented in the class action lawsuit. Internal emails discussing this plan were found during discovery.

Here's a few different sources if you want to learn more. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=ufc+20%+lawsuit.

if revenue goes up, and the % stays the same, pay goes up.......

but i don't think there was any set target on the %. just that they expected to continue to be able to operate at around that level and that's what they based the valuation on. you were looking at the sell side material. it's marketing material for buyers.

 

[Black Paladin]

It's a serious question.
Everybody and their mother has pirate links to not pay for ESPN, let alone buying PPVs, they have no money from fight attendance either, where does all the money they need to put up events on an almost weekly basis come from?

Their advertisers and sponsors WANT there to be as many eyes as possible. UFC make a token effort to stop pirate links, etc.

 

[tehMoose]

They're not that's why they released plenty of elite fighters