In its first full year as a standalone public company, TKO Group Holdings delivered strong revenue growth and a healthy profit. Now it expects to turbocharge that growth in 2025, with a number of big deals on the horizon.
TKO reported its Q4 earnings Wednesday afternoon, with topline revenue of $642.2 million, net income of $47.5 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $238.1 million, with major growth at UFC offsetting a decline at WWE (a decline stemming from the media rights transition, more on that below). UFC had revenue of $343.9 million, up 22%, while WWE had revenue of $298.3 million, down 10%.
That decline was due to the transition of WWE Raw from USA Network to Netflix. With the Netflix deal kicking off last month (alongside a new deal with USA for Smackdown), WWE is likely to see continued rights fee growth for years.
In fact, TKO says that it is projecting 2025 revenue of $2.93-$3 billion, and adjusted EBITDA of $1.35-$1.39 billion. Notably, those projections do not include any revenue from some businesses that the company will be acquiring soon.
Last fall, the company agreed to acquire a handful of other Endeavor businesses, including IMG, On Location and Professional Bull Riders in a $3.25 billion stock deal. That deal is expected to close in the “near term,” TKO says, before the end of Q1.
And 2025 is shaping up to big a big one for dealmaking beyond the Endeavor deal. TKO notes that it is in the midst of rights negotiating with ESPN for UFC, and if the exclusive window lapses, it will be able to take the Dana White-led MMA promotion to the open market. It will also open up talks for WWE premium live events like Wrestlemania and the Royal Rumble.
TKO was formed in the fall of 2023, with Endeavor merging its UFC mixed martial arts promotion with the WWE, betting that corporate synergies, aggressive rights negotiations and a clean balance sheet and story would propel the company’s share price.
Earlier Wednesday, TKO announced a “takeover” of Kansas City, Mo., with PBR, UFC and WWE events to take place over a long weekend in April.
“TKO delivered record financial performance in 2024 at both UFC and WWE, reflecting the strength of
our IP, the dynamic audiences we serve, and the industry-best team of people we’ve assembled,” said
Ariel Emanuel, Executive Chair and CEO of TKO. “In the year ahead, we will be focused on securing
long-term U.S. domestic media rights agreements for UFC as well as WWE’s Premium Live Events;
integrating IMG, On Location and Professional Bull Riders into our portfolio; creating even more
compelling live events; and executing our robust capital return program for shareholders.”