(Bloomberg) -- Outside of the octagon, Ari Emanuel, the chief executive officer of Endeavor Group Holdings Inc. and TKO Group Holdings Inc., could be described as an ultimate fighter.
Since co-founding Endeavor in 1995, the superagent turned entertainment mogul has transformed his Hollywood talent representation business into a goliath spanning the worlds of fashion, TV, live events, sports and the arts. Now, he’s trying to do the same in combat sports.
When Endeavor bought the Ultimate Fighting Championship for $4 billion in 2016, some pundits called Emanuel crazy. “Oh, I don’t really care what those people say, I really don’t,” Emanuel said on Bloomberg Television’s The Circuit with Emily Chang. Emanuel, who’s also the real-life inspiration for the straight-talking Ari Gold in HBO’s Hollywood drama Entourage, lives up to the character’s “I’m no wallflower” style.
Reflecting on his big sports gamble, Emanuel, 63, said he always thought live content was going to become more valuable, and his prediction has proved to be true. The value of the UFC has roughly tripled, and in 2023 Emanuel doubled down, merging World Wrestling Entertainment with the UFC in a $21 billion deal, under the moniker TKO.
Still, Wall Street didn’t buy into the story Emanuel was trying to tell about the future of entertainment and experiences. After a failed IPO in 2019, Endeavor went public two years later, and shares languished. Now, the company is in the process of going private in a deal with Silver Lake Management that’s expected to close next year.
“I didn’t do a good job of explaining the story of what Endeavor was and how it touched all aspects of entertainment,” Emanuel said. “TKO is now a really clean story. It’s sports, entertainment, and now Endeavor will be what it’s going to be.”
Emanuel is moving around parts of his empire as the going-private deal nears. TKO announced last month it would acquire Endeavor’s Professional Bull Riders league, alongside its On Location hospitality business and global sports marketing agency IMG. The plan is for Emanuel to remain CEO of TKO and transition into an executive chairman role at Endeavor after Silver Lake takes the company private. On Nov. 11, Endeavor said it will also sell OpenBet and IMG Arena in a $450 million management buyout backed by Emanuel.
This year, both the UFC and WWE broke new ground in entertainment, surely aided by Emanuel’s impressive Rolodex. In September, the UFC took over the Las Vegas’ Sphere in a one-off cinematic spectacle that cost $20 million to stage. It was the venue’s first-ever sporting event and boasted big name attendees like Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos and Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger.
Earlier this year, the WWE became the latest outfit to announce a pivot from traditional television to streaming with a 10-year, $5 billion deal for Netflix Inc. to air its long-running WWE Raw program. “There’s a huge chunk of the audience that are WWE fans that are not right now, based on our research, Netflix subscribers,” Emanuel said. “And if they capture a portion of those. It’s a huge win for them and a huge win for us.”
Attention is now turning to the UFC’s future with Disney’s ESPN, with their current broadcast deal set to expire in early 2025. On the company’s latest earnings call, Endeavor President Mark Shapiro said he expects Netflix to bid for the UFC media rights.
In meantime, Endeavor is looking to sell more of the businesses Emanuel has amassed over 30 years. “All the assets are great businesses. What remains, what doesn’t remain will play itself out,” Emanuel said on The Circuit. “Whatever is left, I’m going to be around for. Whatever doesn't, I’ll probably be really sad.”
Continuing his career-long gamble, Emanuel is raising money to buy the Miami Open and Madrid Open tennis tournaments as well as the Frieze Art Fair from Endeavor, Bloomberg News reported. Endeavor has said multiple parties have expressed interest in the properties and it won’t show Emanuel any favoritism.
“It’s about not how many punches you can throw, it’s about how many punches you can take,” Emanuel said. “Even though you love something, it’s tough. And endurance is an important quality for anybody now running a public company, starting a business. And so I’ve built my endurance up.”
The Circuit with Emily Chang premieres Thursday, Nov. 14, at 10 pm in New York. To see more episodes of The Circuit, click here.To see more videos from Bloomberg Originals, click here.
--With assistance from Lauren Ellis.
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