Dana White states that the UFC is now worth $7 billion after the ESPN deal. In an interview with Tony Robbins, White stated that the company has improved since Endeavor purchased the UFC for $4.025 billion in August 2016.
White spoke in front of a crowd with Robbins for one of the motivational speaker’s seminars on Business Mastery. He spoke about managing Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz when he learned that the UFC was in financial trouble and discussed purchasing it with Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta.
White talked about the “burn of $40 million” during the down years of the UFC when the promotion was in a hole. At that time, White was asked about trying to sell the UFC and could only get $6-7 million.
UFC inked a new media rights deal with ESPN for $1.5 billion for five years earlier this year. Despite the fact that television ratings have been on the decline and PPV buy rates have been less-than-pleasing, the company still has definitive revenue drivers. This past week saw the UFC get the second-highest gate of all-time for October’s anticipated UFC 229 featuring the return of Conor McGregor. Its international business is on the rise and with another show this November in China could open up more business in the country.
Payout Perspective:
The $7 billion figure stated by Dana White may not be accurate since he was talking to an audience ready to hear about the successes of the business (and they want to hear success stories). But it may be in the ball-park. While there are a lot of reasons to believe that the company is losing money since its acquisition by Endeavor, it is actually doing much better.
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