{"id":26750,"date":"2026-08-04T02:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T21:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=26750"},"modified":"2026-08-04T02:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T21:12:08","slug":"ufc-wwe-parent-tko-sees-solid-q2-raises-full-year-guidance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=26750","title":{"rendered":"UFC, WWE Parent TKO Sees Solid Q2, Raises Full-Year Guidance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/tko\/\" id=\"auto-tag_tko\" data-tag=\"tko\">TKO<\/a> Group, the home of <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/ufc\/\" id=\"auto-tag_ufc\" data-tag=\"ufc\">UFC<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/wwe\/\" id=\"auto-tag_wwe\" data-tag=\"wwe\">WWE<\/a>, saw revenue jump 18% to $1.5 billion for the three months ended in June, beating Wall Street estimates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe stock, which has been taking its knocks this year, jumped in late trading after the <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/earnings\/\" id=\"auto-tag_earnings\" data-tag=\"earnings\">earnings<\/a> report, which included higher forecasts for 2026 full-year revenue and adjusted ebidta, key metrics for investors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cDespite a challenging global environment, TKO delivered solid results in Q2, with strong momentum heading into the back half of the year,\u201d said executive chair and CEO Ariel Emanuel. \u201cPremium live content and experiences are heating up in an increasingly AI-driven world, and our businesses are well positioned to fully capitalize on societal secular tailwinds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tAt UFC, revenue rose by $120 million to $536 million. Higher UFC media rights fees reflected the impact of a distribution agreement with Paramount that began in January. The league also saw new partners and an increase in fees from renewals vs the year before largely driven by the UFC Freedom 250 event held at the White House in June. Ticket sales fell, since none were sold for the high-profile event, and there was one less numbered event in the quarter from the year earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tAt WWE, revenue rose by $64.7 million to $621 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tTKO\u2019s IMG segment saw sales up by $48 million to $354.7 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tTKO net income grew $31 million to $304 million on higher revenue partly offset by increased expense, including $98 million of legal fees and settlement costs associated with stockholder litigation related to WWE. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe company\u2019s adjusted ebitda rose 23% to $649.9 million. Free cash flow of $349.6 million fell by $25.3 million<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tTKO shares closed up 1.2% ahead of earnings and are about 2% after, at $187.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cFrom UFC Freedom 250 to the FIFA World Cup, TKO continues to deliver on the biggest stages and this quarter reinforced our 2026 execution story,\u201d said TKO president and COO Mark Shapiro, saying its move to raise full-year guidance reflects \u201cboth our performance to date and our confidence in TKO\u2019s multi-year trajectory,\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cOur global fan base is expanding, and we are capitalizing on the commercial promise across ticketing, premium hospitality, marketing partnerships, and financial incentive packages. The demand in the experience economy is undeniable and positions us well for multi-year growth, margin expansion, and overall value creation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tExecs are hosting a call with analysts at 5 pm ET.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t<em>More to come<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TKO Group, the home of UFC and WWE, saw revenue jump 18% to $1.5 billion for the three months ended in June, beating Wall Street estimates. The stock, which has been taking its knocks this year, jumped in late trading after the earnings report, which included higher forecasts for 2026 full-year revenue and adjusted ebidta,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285941891.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}