CNBC Sport: Saudi push into boxing looks different than other investments
It's no secret that Saudi Arabia has been investing in various corners of global sports.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund's foray into sports has at times been splashy — namely in golf and the ongoing saga of whether LIV Golf will merge with the PGA Tour. But the Saudi-backed subsidiary Sela's recent venture into boxing has a different vibe to it.
In March, Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority and an outspoken boxing fan, teamed up with TKO Group and Sela for a multi-year partnership to create a new, global boxing promotion platform. Investors and industry insiders have welcomed the venture with the expectation it could help revolutionize a sport that has long been fragmented compared with other top leagues, especially from the media rights perspective.
Sela is an entertainment conglomerate that touts its place as the lead sponsor of English Premier League team Newcastle United Football Club (find Sela on the front of team jerseys), and being part of projects involving Formula E and the Italian Super Cup. It's also one of PIF's many portfolio companies that invests on behalf of the government fund.
"I have heard some rumors for a while that Saudi investors were interested in boxing because it's such a fractured marketplace," said Shirin Malkani, co-chair of the sports industry group at Perkins Coie. "It's the right kind of dysfunction, which creates an opportunity. The media rights alone are ripe for thoughtful consolidation."
It's that backdrop – and the focus on media rights – that gave Sela a different opportunity when entering the sport.
Rather than go it alone or go to market traditionally to find a deal partner, Sela sought out TKO to form the partnership, according to people familiar with the deal. Lawyers from Latham & Watkins and Clifford Chance led the charge in forming the partnership, the people said.
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The thinking was that UFC President and CEO Dana White and WWE President Nick Khan would lead the boxing company operationally, the people said. Namely, the two could use their track record to ink lucrative media rights deals, similar to what they've done with the UFC and WWE, one of the people said.
Last year TKO's Chief Operating Officer Mark Shapiro told CNBC Sport he thought that Netflix would be at the table when the combat sports company can begin negotiating its TV deal – for which it's reportedly targeting a $1 billion valuation. UFC's exclusive negotiating window with Disney ended on April 15. WWE already has a deal with the streamer.
The release in March highlighted that White and Khan would anchor the leadership for the platform, providing day-to-day operational expertise, management and oversight.
Representatives from TKO and PIF declined to comment.
While TKO wasn't previously in boxing, it's firmly in the world of professional fighting through the UFC and WWE. Plus, the company's connection with Saudi Arabia has grown, as the WWE hosts live events there, and the UFC recently got into the mix, too.
Turki Alalshikh has been public about his boxing interests – he was also quick to dispel rumors that the new league was intended to eliminate other promoters or officials currently in boxing, per Ring Magazine. Sela has also already hosted international boxing events.
As the deal was only announced about a month ago, little to anything has gotten off the ground, the people said. Media rights negotiations have yet to kick off, and creating a schedule would likely follow that, they added.
"It's smart for them to partner with TKO both on the operational side and for media rights, where TKO is very sophisticated," Malkani said.
While there are existing boxing promotions, a behemoth doesn't yet exist in the space. This has presented an opportunity to combine, different from the Saudis' leap into golf, when PIF created a rival league to the PGA Tour.
Following the public clash between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf – which included LIV courting players with hefty payouts and lawsuits filed on both sides – the two made the shocking announcement on CNBC in 2023 that they had agreed to merge. While a framework agreement was inked, a deal has not yet come to fruition – and the twists and turns have been heavily reported in the media.
The talks have gone quiet, but the agreement is not dead, people close to the deal said.
But one of the weakest spots for LIV had been its media rights strategy and deals – something PIF may be able to avoid in the boxing realm with the TKO partnership. LIV had inked deals with Nexstar's CW Group in the past, but struggled to bring big audiences. More recently LIV announced a multi-year media rights deal with Fox Sports in the U.S. – days after naming Scott O'Neil, formerly CEO of Merlin Entertainments and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment – as its new CEO.
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