TKO Group Holdings Inc Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Hey, good afternoon, guys. I should ask Mark about the UFC rights renewal now that you guys are, I believe, out of the exclusive window. Can you give us any update on that process? How you're thinking about the pros and cons of splitting those rights or keeping them all with one partner and sort of any update on ESPN as a go-forward partner? And then Andrew, I don't know if you can be any more specific, you gave us a lot there at the end on the acquired assets. But just trying to get to free cash flow for '25 now that you've closed the Endeavor acquisitions, is there anything else you can tell us to sort of help us think about free cash flow conversion, including acquired businesses now that, that deal is all done. Thank you very much.

Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : So that's helpful. Thank you guys. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 08, 2025 / 9:00PM, TKO.N - Q1 2025 TKO Group Holdings Inc Earnings Call Unidentified Company Representative Thank you.

Question: Brandon Ross - LightShed Partners - Analyst : Hey, thamks. A couple of topics. First, we all saw the Canelo announcement assume that Canelo falls under the bucket of one-offs in your commentary about Boxing last quarter. Can you just tell us how the economics work on that versus the main promotion that you're building and where will these spikes get distributed? And will you get paid? And is there a strategic tie in to what you're doing with other media rights? And then just a

Question: Brandon Ross - LightShed Partners - Analyst : No. I think I'm good there. And then just on the UFC media rates. -- can you comment maybe on how the market and your approach to the number of sites and the fight nights might differ in this negotiation. Are you looking to have the same balance of reach and dollars for each, do you have the same objectives for each? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 08, 2025 / 9:00PM, TKO.N - Q1 2025 TKO Group Holdings Inc Earnings Call

Question: Brandon Ross - LightShed Partners - Analyst : Great, thank you very much.

Question: Stephen Laszczyk - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Hey, guys, thanks for taking my question. Maybe first for Andrew on the guide for the core business, you have seen WWE. It sounds like both outperformed your internal expectations heading into the year. Just be curious if you could talk a little bit more about what specific areas of outperformance were captured in the first quarter within those two businesses? And to what degree the increase in the guidance for the year factors and a continuation of that outperformance into the back half of the year? Or if you're still maintaining perhaps some degree of conservatism there?

Question: Stephen Laszczyk - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : And maybe just a quick follow-up question on capital returns. It sounds like share repurchases should kick in, in the second or maybe third quarters here. Anything more you can say on how you're thinking about the pacing of that $2 billion share repurchase program. Should we expect you to be consistent on execution or more opportunistic, more price sensitive in the marketplace?

Question: Stephen Laszczyk - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Thanks, Andrew.

Question: Peter Supino - Wolfe Research, LLC. - Analyst : And first, Mark, I just want to come to Brandon's news defense. That was nothing compared to some of the compound questions we get on media conference calls. I wanted to ask you a question about the IMG segment. How should we think about modeling that segment's growth across the subcomponents of media, live events sponsorships, products and then how might we think about incremental EBITDA margins?

Question: Peter Supino - Wolfe Research, LLC. - Analyst : Thank you, Mark.

Question: Eric Handler - Roth Capital Partners, LLC, - Analyst : Tahnk you, good afternoon, thanks for the question. Wonder if you could talk a little bit about some of the directional activity you're seeing with site fee deals. It seems like there's been more this year. Can you maybe talk about directionally the volume of deals that you're doing? Maybe the percentage increase that you're seeing? And sort of like how do you determine location by location like what the value is of that tight deal?

Question: Eric Handler - Roth Capital Partners, LLC, - Analyst : Great. That's helpful. I guess just a follow-up to that, can you make what percentage of your events would you say actually have site fees? Just trying to get a sense of like what inning you're in here.

Question: Eric Handler - Roth Capital Partners, LLC, - Analyst : Very helpful, thanks you.

Question: Ryan Gravett - UBS Group AG - Analyst : Great, thanks, on the announced acquisition of AAA wrestling in Mexico. I'm curious what you see as the biggest opportunity here in terms of improving monetization and integration with WWE and are there similar tuck-in opportunities like this one around the world?

Question: Ryan Gravett - UBS Group AG - Analyst : That's great. And just to confirm, this would be incremental to the current guidance?

Question: Ryan Gravett - UBS Group AG - Analyst : Thanks.

Question: Jason Bazinet - Citigroup Inc. - Analyst : Thanks for taking my question. I just had a very simple question. the market really likes the assets that you guys are managing and they love the way you're managing them. The one, I guess, slight concern that I have, and I don't know if it's valid, is that once we get through the UFC renewal and the WWE my fear is that your equity turns into like a bond, meaning it's well run, it generates a lot of cash, but there's not as much enthusiasm for the equity just because there aren't as many needle-moving things that you can do. Do you think that, that's a valid concern? Or do you think there's enough with boxing and sponsorship and site fees to sort of keep the growth as exciting as it has been? Thanks.

Question: Jason Bazinet - Citigroup Inc. - Analyst : That's super helpful. Thank you for that context.

Question: Jason Bazinet - Citigroup Inc. - Analyst : Thank you very much.