Notes from TKO Group’s 2025 Fiscal 1st Quarter Report

May 8, 2025

TKO Group held an investor’s meeting on Thursday to discuss the results from their fiscal 2025 first quarter report.

In regards to revenues, TKO generated $1.2688 billion in net revenues for the fiscal quarter with the split being $359.7 million from UFC and $391.5 million from WWE. It was stated that IMG generated the remainder of $476.3 million for net revenues. This was up 4% overall and up from the $316.7 million from WWE and $313 million from UFC compared to the same fiscal quarter last year.

TKO generated a net income of $165.5 million for the fiscal quarter. It was stated that the main reason for the gain was due to the abscense of a “preliminary legal settlement charge of $335.0 million related to a UFC antitrust matter” for last year’s fiscal first quarter.

In regards to other financial areas, TKO’s Adjusted EBITDA for the fiscal quarter was $417.4 million. WWE’s media rights and content revenue for the fiscal quarter was $251.6 million. WWE’s live events revenue was $76.3 million, sponsorship revenue was $25.6 million, and consumer products revenue was $38 million for the fiscal quarter.

Official press release:

TKO Reports First Quarter 2025 Results
Raises Full Year 2025 Guidance Reflecting Strength at UFC and WWE
Updates Full Year 2025 Guidance to Include theAcquisition of theIMG Business, On Location, PBR, and Associated Transaction Impacts
Acquired Businesses
On February 28, 2025, TKO Group Holdings, Inc. (“TKO”) completed the acquisition of certain businesses operating under the IMG brand (the “IMG Business”), On Location, and Professional Bull Riders (“PBR”) (collectively referred to as the “Acquired Businesses”). As a common control acquisition, reported results presented in this earnings release reflect the Acquired Businesses as if they had been part of TKO during the historical periods presented. (See “Basis of Presentation” for further details.)
First Quarter 2025 Financial Highlights¹
* Revenue of $1,268.8 million
* Net income of $165.5 million
* Adjusted EBITDA² of $417.4 million
Full Year 2025 Guidance³
Excluding the impact of the Acquired Businesses, the Company increased its targets for revenue to $3.005 billion to $3.075 billion, from $2.930 billion to $3.000 billion, and Adjusted EBITDA to $1.390 billion to $1.430 billion, from $1.350 billion to $1.390 billion
Including the impact of the Acquired Businesses, the Company is targeting revenue of $4.490 billion to $4.560 billion and Adjusted EBITDA of $1.490 billion to $1.530 billion
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– TKO Group Holdings, Inc. (“TKO” or the “Company”) (NYSE: TKO) today announced financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2025.
“TKO is off to a good start in 2025 with both UFC and WWE delivering solid financial results,” said Ariel Emanuel, Executive Chair and CEO of TKO. “Given the strength and momentum of these businesses and no material change to our overall business outlook, we are raising our guidance. At the same time, we are updating guidance to reflect the addition of IMG, On Location, and PBR. Our conviction in our portfolio of assets is strong and we are now focused on integration, driving synergies, the domestic media rights deal for UFC, and our capital return programs.”
Consolidated Results
First Quarter 2025
Revenue increased 4%, or $46.4 million, to $1.269 billion. The increase primarily reflected an increase of $74.8 million at WWE, to $391.5 million, and an increase of $46.7 million at UFC, to $359.7 million, partially offset by a decrease of $73.4 million at IMG, to $476.3 million.
Net Income was $165.5 million, an increase of $400.0 million from a net loss of $234.5 million in the prior year period. The increase primarily reflected the increase in revenue and a decrease in operating expenses. The decrease in operating expenses reflected a decrease in selling, general and administrative expenses of $305.0 million, a decrease in direct operating costs of $38.0 million, and a decrease in depreciation and amortization of $21.6 million. The decrease in selling, general and administrative expenses was primarily related to the absence of a preliminary legal settlement charge of $335.0 million related to a UFC antitrust matter that was recorded in the prior year period.
Adjusted EBITDA² increased 23%, or $78.5 million, to $417.4 million, primarily due to an increase of $53.7 million at WWE, to $193.9 million, and an increase of $32.3 million at UFC, to $227.4 million, partially offset by a decrease of $7.8 million at IMG, to $73.5 million.Corporate and Other was essentially flat as compared to the prior year period.
Cash flows generated by operating activities were $162.8 million, an increase of $117.9 million from $44.9 million, primarily due to higher net income and the timing of working capital, including approximately $100.3 million of pre-payments held in escrow related to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. These increases were partially offset by a payment of $125.0 million related to the UFC antitrust lawsuit as well as payments related to transaction costs in connection with the Acquired Businesses and the timing of bonuses. (See “Other Matters” for further details.)
Free Cash Flow⁴ was $135.5 million, an increase of $128.0 million from $7.5 million, due to the increase in cash flows generated by operating activities and a decrease in capital expenditures.
Cash and cash equivalents were $470.9 million as of March 31, 2025.
Gross debt was $2.776 billion as of March 31, 2025.

Other notable highlights from TKO’s investor’s meeting:

Audio was aired from TKO Group CEO Ari Emanuel who touted the assimilation of On Location and PBR (Professional Bull Riders) into the company. Emanuel also praised UFC on their success in London and Australia for shows, their deal to hold major WWE and UFC events in Perth, Australia, and for India joining the WWE Netfilx family. Emanuel also praised WWE ‘s live gate success for their Elimination Chamber, Royal Rumble and other events this year and their record-breaking WrestleMania 41 event.
TKO CFO Andrew Schleimer stated that they do not expect the tariffs to hit them in a major way for WWE and UFC merchandise due to both license out and don’t produce their own merchandise.
Schleimer also stated that they set records for partners and sponsorships at WrestleMania 41 and brought up how every match was sponsored by an advertiser.
In regards to UFC’s talks for a new media rights deal, they have no update on the status of those talks.
In regards to TKO launching a new boxing company, TKO COO Mark Shapiro stated “We’re expecting, with the new boxing organization, to put on an average of 12 cards a year for each of the next five years. We’re still putting that plan together and obviously working hand in hand with our friends from Saudi. Irrespective of those, we will look to do anywhere from one to four sort-of super fights per year. We’ll see how that plays out. Obviously, we would term the Canelo-Crawford match-up as one of those. On that undercard, we would have a number of those fights that would likely air on the television-media partner we would have for our newly formed boxing organization. I should mention, it’s not going to be called TKO Boxing. We’ll be unveiling our name for our business fairly soon here, but it will not be TKO Boxing. Those are two separate businesses. The Saudis are funding these super fight cards. We’ll work with them on media rights deals and commission. We’ll work with the on global partnerships and ticketing. We’ll handle the production. We’ll look to potentially promote all of them with Dana White and Nick Khan driving much of that. Separately, we’ll have our boxing organization where we’re going out and doing 12 cards a year on average and getting a separate media rights fee, selling global partnerships to those cards, and of course promoting and producing those cards on whatever media platform we choose to tie with.“
On the topic of their site fee deals for UFC and WWE and how they determine the value for those events, Shapiro stated that they do economic surveys and are aggressive in the space. Shapiro also stated that they are constantly on the lookout for cash and they identify the market and use the leverage they have to maximum deals.
On the topic what was the biggest opportunity for monetizing WWE and purchase of AAA, WWE President Nick Khan stated “If you look at some of the recent wrestlers who came into WWE, Penta and his real-life brother Fenix in particular, both social media impressions- Penta on his debut, almost 100 million social media impressions. We see a spike in Latino viewership when he comes out. It’s something we noticed a few years ago when Bad Bunny came in on his run with WWE. The Latino audience would be there if there is someone like them who was there. Number one, it’s a new influx of wrestlers. It’s added to the demographic where we’re already strong. [Worlds Collide and Money in the Bank] will be produced from one truck. There are efficiencies there, there are good dollars there, and we’re excited about the overall opportunity.“
On the same topic, Schleimer responded stating “The only thing I would add is, strategically, we do think this is a significant opportunity. The short-term financial impact is not meaningful to the overall picture. Just as we’ve done with UFC and WWE, this was a family operated promotion that we think we can leverage, institutionalize, loan our expertise to create value. We’ll increase media rights, we’ll increase live event revenue, we’ll increase partnership revenue, and we’ll increase consumer products and licensing opportunities. It’s squarely in our wheelhouse on top of the rich cultural heritage and strategic importance to WWE.“
On the same topic, Shapiro also responded stating “First week we came out of the gate with Penta. When he first debuted, he led all merchandise sales that week. New to the party and he was number one. We’re looking to mine these opportunities everywhere. Obviously, this is an established league.“
On the topic of if the growth could be substained once they monetize UFC and WWE PLEs, Khan stated that their management team does not sit still and they have ways to go on live ticket revenue for WWE. Kha stated that they are going to launch new brands and new shows and there will be new leagues they unearth such as AAA. Khan also stated that there will be more ancillary programming for TKO.

Source: PWInsider.com, Fightful.com 1 & 2