How much the UFC lost on the White House card has been revealed
The UFC held their Freedom 250 event at the White House earlier this year, and we now know exactly how much money UFC and TKO lost on the endeavor.
Andrew Schleimer, chief financial officer of TKO Group, told investors this week that the company had lost approximately $30m in running the event:
“Given the event’s profile, which as anticipated, resulted in an approximate $30m loss, our margins at UFC as well as on a consolidated basis were meaningfully impacted.”
UFC at the White House
TKO Group signed a $7.7 billion contract with Paramount last year. This meant that all numbered and major UFC events would now be available on streaming (via Paramount+) rather than on PPV. So while $30 million is a lot to lose on a single event, they clearly felt that the optics of running a show on the White House south lawn (and the amount of viewership it would get) was worth it. The White House card averaged around 34 million viewers worldline, making it one of the single most-watched MMA events of all time.
TKO also revealed that UFC’s revenue had increased 29% year over year to $535.7 million for the second quarter of this year, which includes $64.7 million increase in media rights which were driven by the new(ish) deal with Paramount.
credit to BBC News for the transcription
Jake is the Head of Audience at F4WOnline, having previously worked as a Combat Sports, Gaming and Pro Wrestling writer, successful Editor in Chief and Sports Coordinator. He has more than ten years of experience covering mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, football and gaming across a number of publications, starting at SEScoops in 2012.
He previously also worked for PROGRESS Wrestling as Head of Media as well as working on the social channels of the company.