A report from the Sports Business Journal this week indicates that the PFL is “on course” to make revenue in the nine-figure range in 2024. The story comes a week before the PFL’s big event with the MMA debut of Francis Ngannou.
The article cites PFL founder & Chair Donn Davis stating that it will “take in over $100M in revenue this year with sponsorship up 75%.”
PFL Super Fights event takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 19th. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia has a stake in the company which is valued “around $1B” per Davis and the PIF. Davis claims that the $100M in revenue is “more than double” what it took in last year.
One of the reasons that Saudi Arabia has invested in the PFL is partly to build out a league in the Middle East. The company has looked to 3 key performance indicators in determining the success of its partnership with Saudi Arabia. “PFL investment on: 1) Becoming the co-leader in MMA; 2) business metrics; and 3) The development of the PFL Middle East and North Africa league, which began this year.”
Despite the big lead the UFC has in the sport, PFL believes it can company citing that it has signed some of the top fighters in the world.
The SBJ article notes that it has $20M in domestic sponsorship revenue this year. It also projects a 75% increase in revenue from this year’s projections based on doing more global deals.
Payout Perspective:
The PFL strategy aims to take on the UFC head on instead of other competitors which attempted to siphon off UFC castoffs and find diamonds in the rough to make its rosters. But, with the Saudi money, the PFL can make some headway into the MMA market. Of course, the UFC will be doing more work with the PIF in the future based on the success of the Sphere event. But, eyes should be on next week’s PFL event in Saudi as the PFL’s first PPV card takes place.
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