TKO Group Holdings combines UFC and WWE global partnerships to form marketing powerhouse

TKO has combined its global partnership teams with UFC and WWE to bolster one of the most expansive sports marketing portfolios worldwide.

Per a press release shared on Business Wire, in recent years, UFC has generated massive brand partnerships with organizations such as PRIME Hydration, Anheuser-Busch, DraftKings, Crypto.com, Jose Cuervo, Monster Energy, Timex, and VeChain.

As for WWE, they have a prolific history of securing massive sponsorships. I mean, in the last year alone, WWE has aligned with blue chip groups like General Mills, Applebee’s, PepsiCo, Mattel, Netflix, Slim Jim, Pizza Hut, and Snickers.

Grant Norris-Jones of UFC’s global partnerships team now leads the new pairing as Executive Vice President and Head of Global Partnerships. Also, Norris-Jones and Lou Koskovolis will handle the duties of Executive Vice President of Global Partnerships.

In regards to this recent announcement, Chief Financial Officer of TKO Andrew Schleimer said:

“Since Endeavor acquired UFC in 2016, UFC’s global partnerships business has become a significant growth area and we believe WWE’s partnerships business has similar potential. Together, UFC and WWE create a sports marketing powerhouse."

He added:

"With hundreds of live events per year and a reach that’s equal to, or better than, the world’s biggest sports properties. The newly integrated global partnerships team will offer premium brands the opportunity to integrate and activate within UFC’s and WWE’s extraordinarily popular content to engage their massive fan bases around the world.”

Check out some of the buzz around the new UFC-WWE amalgamation below:

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TKO and how WWE came to merge with UFC

The April 2023 announcement of the staggering near twenty billion dollar deal and then trading on the New York Stock Exchange last September showed TKO was out in a big way.

UFC's operating company Endeavor now has a 51 percent ownership stake in WWE with the largest entities in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts now being under the same ownership umbrella.

The initial top players for this new entity were Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel (new CEO), WWE co-founder Vince McMahon as the new executive chairman, UFC's Dana White as the new CEO, and Nick Khan remaining the president of WWE.