When the Fertitta brothers decided to let go of the UFC, they sold the company for a total of $4 billion to bigwig talent agency WME-IMG. But after the UFC’s new broadcast partnership with ESPN which was made official last May, company president Dana White is expecting a boost in that previous value.
“When you think about it we haven’t even scratched the surface yet of how big this thing can be,” White said in a recent interview with entrepreneur Tony Robbins (transcript via MMAjunkie). “We just did a TV deal with ESPN for $1.5 billion for five years. Now the company is worth $7 billion.”
White is essentially expecting that having UFC fights broadcasted over ESPN, a company that prides itself to be the “worldwide leader in sports”, the promotion will only get even more exposure in the United States alone.
“Obviously this ESPN deal is going to be massive for us, expose us to millions of people just here in the U.S. that haven’t been exposed to the UFC,” he said. “We’re going to continue to go into markets we haven’t been, we’re going to continue to find the best talent in the world.”
“I love to find up-and-coming talent. I love to find the next guy or girl. Continue to build the sport. That’s it. That’s my focus. It’s not rocket science, it’s nothing crazy. Just continue to do what we do and get bigger and bigger.”
The UFC-ESPN deal will officially begin on January 1st of the coming year.
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