Goldman Sachs held a Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference 2026 event earlier today featuring TKO COO Mark Shapiro as one of the guests. One of the topics discussed included Shapiro’s thoughts about TKO Group’s partnership with the Saudi Arabian government and the company currently considering plans to potentially hold more WWE and UFC events in the Middle East in 2026.
“Obviously nothing bigger next year than WrestleMania being in Saudi Arabia, which will be one to remember and one not to miss. Of course, our partners in Saudi bring the UFC and WWE to their region because they’re trying to draw attendance from not just around the globe, but certainly in the Middle East. All I would tell you is when it comes to the Middle East, despite what’s going on, despite how much longer that may go on, they’re open for business. In fact, I would tell you they’re more hungry to bring live events, not just sports, but concerts to the Middle East to show the world and tourism and fans that they’re open for business and they’re not slowing down. We’ve stayed on track with our events for this year. We still have two more events this year.
We may actually announce a couple more this year. That’s how much demand we’re seeing, and I think that’s ultimately the headline among the headlines when it comes to TKO and where we sit in the sports entertainment ecosystem. Demand is outstripping supply.”
Shapiro also gave his thoughts about the current pay of UFC fighters and WWE wrestlers and how TKO is balancing talent expenses with the marketing support that goes into talent in WWE and UFC.
“Let’s talk about the pay for the superstars and our fighters first. What I would tell you is post our new deals with ESPN on WWE and with Paramount+, CBS, Peacock, Sky with UFC, and even a little bit post Raw with Netflix, we did resize our fighter and superstar pay composition. That is baked into our numbers. So there will be no further adverse impact with regard to how that plays out or divvies out. We’re confident with where we sit. We have 600 fighters as an example in our stable at the UFC. We do, to your point, really rely on development. Keep in mind that when you look at the WWE, 75% of the superstars come from NXT. So they’re starting in our development league and going all the way up. So pipeline is very important to our strategy.
On the UFC front, we’ve really capitalized on the investments of our performance centers in Mexico City and Vegas, and particularly China. We’re really getting real traction. So that’s a big part of our strategy. It will continue to be a big part of our strategy, and we will continue to be aggressive in other monetization opportunities for both our superstars and our UFC fighters with regard to advertiser deals, marketing partnerships, bonuses through the fight card in terms of finishes and fight of the night. What you see is you see the best of the best signing up and lining up to be a part of the UFC and to be a part of WWE. So that’s something we always watch out for and we want to make sure that we’re really spreading the opportunities, but the strategy’s working.
Our margins will continue to expand.”
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