Demetrious Johnson, left, of the United States and Tatsumitsu Wada of Japan, face off during the … [+]
ONE
Chatri Sityodtong, ONE Championship’s CEO and chairman who founded the company in 2011, said he is considering numerous locations for the first U.S. event. He expects to have multiple cards in the U.S. in 2023.
As of now, all of ONE Championship’s more than 100 events since its inception have been held in Asia. Each of the events since the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020 has been in Singapore, including the upcoming Aug. 26 card that will be the first ONE Championship event to air on Amazon
Earlier this year, ONE Championship and Amazon signed a five-year contract for rights in the U.S. and Canada that Sityodtong says is worth “more than eight figures,” meaning more than $10 million. The agreement calls for Amazon to stream at least 12 ONE Championship cards each year. Anyone with an Amazon Prime membership can watch the events for no additional charge.
ONE Championship previously had a North American broadcast agreement with Turner Sports that began in 2019. Last year, four ONE Championship cards aired on TNT. When the Turner deal ended, ONE Championship hired mega-agency CAA to look for a media rights deal in the U.S. and Canada.
Amazon is an emerging player in sports, most notably signing a deal to exclusively air an NFL game on Thursday nights beginning this year. Amazon’s NFL deal is for about $1 billion per year for the next 11 years. The company also recently inked a deal to air Champions League soccer matches in the United Kingdom starting in 2024.
“We had a few offers and ended up choosing Amazon because Amazon is an absolute giant,” Sityodtong said.
He added: “(Amazon is) very tight in their quality, They’ve selected NFL, Champions League, ONE. They’re really going after the very best properties in the world. They’re not trying to do a shotgun approach. They’re trying to be really targeted and find long-term partnerships. We’re very grateful to have Amazon.”
Since its founding, ONE Championship has raised $515 million, including $150 million in a December 2021 round that valued the company at $1.4 billion, according to Sityodtong. Guggenheim Investments, a New York-based asset manager with more than $228 billion in assets under management, and the Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, led the latest round.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Group One Holdings, ONE Championship’s parent company, is considering an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S. and plans to change its legal domicile from Singapore to the Cayman Islands. That follows a December 2021 report from DealStreetAsia that Group One was considering going public via a merger with Gores Holdings VIII, Inc., a special purpose acquisition company whose shares are listed on the Nasdaq exchange.
Group One also owns ONE esports, an esports events and online media company, and “The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition,” a reality television show where the winner works under Sityodtong for a year and earns a $250,000 salary.
Sityodtong declined to comment on the Bloomberg report, but he noted that Group One is working with Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse as its investment bankers.
“We’re always looking at different opportunities around the world for global expansion,” Sityodtong said. “I can’t confirm or deny that (IPO) rumor, but I can just say we’re always actively looking…We’re always looking at various opportunities to accelerate our growth.”
Sityodtong added that those growth plans include expanding its audience and hosting live events in the U.S. and Europe. ONE Championship is already popular in Asia, and the company has broadcast deals in 154 countries.
Still, Sityodtong referred to the Amazon agreement as “the most important deal we’ve done in history” because of the company’s reach with more than 200 million Prime subscribers throughout the world.
ONE Championship mostly features MMA and muay thai bouts, but it also offers kickboxing, boxing and other disciplines. That differentiates ONE Championship from the UFC, the dominant combat sports company that only has MMA bouts.
The Aug. 26 ONE Championship card is headlined by an MMA bout featuring flyweight champion Adriano Moraes of Brazil defending his belt against Demetrious Johnson, a Kentucky native and former UFC flyweight champion. Moraes defeated Johnson via TKO in April 2021.
Amazon has also announced ONE Championship events for four other Friday nights this year: Sept. 30, Oct. 21, Nov. 18 and Dec. 2. Sityodtong is hoping those airings will help drive interest in the organization in the U.S.
“The U.S. is a big market for us because of how big live sports is,” Sityodtong said.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timcasey/2022/08/19/asia-based-professional-martial-arts-league-one-championship-plans-first-us-events-in-2023/