TKO Group, the combat sports giant formed out of the merger of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and World Wresting Entertainment (WWE) promotions, has combined the commercial teams of the two organizations.
The company yesterday announced that it will merge the UFC and WWE global partnerships teams into one unit, “providing brands with access to one of the most formidable sports marketing portfolios in the world.”
Grant Norris-Jones, who has held senior commercial roles at UFC for over seven years, has been elevated to lead the integrated unit as executive vice president and head of global partnerships for TKO, which includes the entirety of UFC and WWE properties.
He was chosen to head up the combined sales team having been credited with playing a key role in driving UFC’s global partnerships to six consecutive years of record revenue.
Norris-Jones will work alongside Lou Koskovolis, who is also taking on an expanded role as TKO’s executive vice president of global partnerships. Together, they will focus on delivering “unique, authentic integrations” for TKO’s corporate partners.
UFC promoted Norris-Jones to the role of senior vice president of global partnerships last year.
The new joint effort will further benefit from “additional support and collaboration with the Endeavor Partnerships team to maximize value for brands across the entire Endeavor portfolio of assets.”
TKO said that with partnership sales, activations, and operations teams in New York, Las Vegas, Stamford, Connecticut, London, Sao Paulo, Sydney, Shanghai, and Toronto, the newly combined unit will focus on creating new revenue opportunities and brand integrations across UFC’s and WWE’s live and original content.
Endeavor, the international entertainment and sports giant, completed its deal with WWE to merge the organization with UFC under the TKO Group name last year.
Combined, TKO boasts more than 1 billion fans worldwide, reaching viewers in 180 countries, and producing more than 350 annual live events.
Andrew Schleimer, TKO chief financial officer, 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, 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.”
In recent years, UFC has partnered with major brands including Anheuser-Busch, Crypto.com, DraftKings, Jose Cuervo, Monster Energy, PRIME Hydration, Timex, and VeChain.
In addition, WWE has worked with many of blue-chip brands and over the last year has teamed up with Applebee’s, General Mills, Mattel, Netflix, PepsiCo, Pizza Hut, Slim Jim, and Snickers.
