TKO President and COO Mark Shapiro spoke at the 51st Annual J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference. Among the topics was the UFC Antitrust Lawsuit with the Le case set for February 2, 2025.
Shapiro addressed the UFC Antitrust Lawsuit. He was disappointed with the fact that Judge Richard Boulware did not approve the settlement. “Anyone that is a student of our business that closely follows this story, is just ridiculous,” which infers that Shapiro was not happy with the outcome.
“We very strongly on the merits of both cases,” he added. “If there is an adverse outcome, we will go all the way.” Shapiro said that they would appeal any decision against Zuffa. He stressed how both parties were willing to settle and though the outcome was fair, but the Judge thought otherwise. He also said that the outcome only benefited the lawyers in the end since they would be the beneficiaries of the extra work.
He compared the case to that of the NFL Sunday Ticket litigation. While the judge overturned a verdict against the NFL, the league was going to explore every avenue of appeal it could prior to the ruling. “We are not going to be just writing a bigger check,” he said of the continued lawsuit.
Payout Perspective:
Clearly Shapiro is annoyed with having to defend this lawsuit. In my opinion, it sounds like it is no longer a business issue but more of a personal one in which they intend to appeal the case to as high a court as they may get. He also indicated that TKO has spent more than what the Board had thought they would. It does sound like the two parties are going to make additional efforts to resolve the matter but Shapiro was explicit in the fact that TKO would not just cave in and add more money to the settlement.
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