Forbes ranks the UFC in top ten of world’s most valuable sports brands
27 Oct '16 08:56Great Article. The fastest growing sport in the world today. And it is Global. Read below.
Mike Ozanian of Forbes magazine released the Forbes Fab 40 list of the world’s most valuable sports brands yesterday. Included in this list was the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which was ranked 7th in the ‘sports business’ category.
These Forbes listings do not reflect how much businesses, teams, events, and athletes themselves are worth (or how much they earn). Rather, the listings represent, “how much the name of each brand - all by itself - contributes to their value or earnings.”
The listing includes four categories: sports businesses, events, teams, and athletes. The brand value for each category was calculated differently. For the sports business category - in which the UFC was featured - the brand value was measured as the “difference between the estimated enterprise value of the business brand and what the enterprise value of a similar business is worth.”
Ozanian’s article paid special attention to the UFC in the wake of its acquisition by WME/IMG for a reported $4 billion.
“By my count the price allocation of the deal valued the UFC’s brand at $2 billion,” wrote Ozanian, who then revealed that - by his calculations - the UFC had posted a year-over-year increase of 335% from 2015 to 2016. This was by far the biggest increase of estimated brand value of any other top listed brand/event/athlete/team during that time period. However, Ozanian did warn that the UFC’s brand value could plummet should the the promotion not increase in profitability and thus fail to justify the price paid by WME/IMG.
The number one sports business brands according to Forbes was Nike with a brand value of $27 billion (a 3.8% increase from 2015). Second was ESPN ($16.8billion/-2.9😵 and third was Adidas ($7 billion/12.9😵. Under Armour, UK based broadcaster Sky Sports, MLB Advanced Media, YES, Reebok, and NESN rounded out the top ten.
Official UFC sponsor Reebok was 9th on the list, with a brand value of $800 million, down 3.6% from last year.
No mixed martial artist was able to crack the top ten athletes, from a brand value standpoint. That list included Roger Federer, LeBron James, Phil Mickelson, Usain Bolt, Tiger Woods, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kevin Durant, Lionel Messi, Rory McIlroy, and Indian cricketer Mahandra Singh Dhoni, with brand values ranging from $36 million to $11 million.
Mike Ozanian of Forbes magazine released the Forbes Fab 40 list of the world’s most valuable sports brands yesterday. Included in this list was the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which was ranked 7th in the ‘sports business’ category.
These Forbes listings do not reflect how much businesses, teams, events, and athletes themselves are worth (or how much they earn). Rather, the listings represent, “how much the name of each brand - all by itself - contributes to their value or earnings.”
The listing includes four categories: sports businesses, events, teams, and athletes. The brand value for each category was calculated differently. For the sports business category - in which the UFC was featured - the brand value was measured as the “difference between the estimated enterprise value of the business brand and what the enterprise value of a similar business is worth.”
Ozanian’s article paid special attention to the UFC in the wake of its acquisition by WME/IMG for a reported $4 billion.
“By my count the price allocation of the deal valued the UFC’s brand at $2 billion,” wrote Ozanian, who then revealed that - by his calculations - the UFC had posted a year-over-year increase of 335% from 2015 to 2016. This was by far the biggest increase of estimated brand value of any other top listed brand/event/athlete/team during that time period. However, Ozanian did warn that the UFC’s brand value could plummet should the the promotion not increase in profitability and thus fail to justify the price paid by WME/IMG.
The number one sports business brands according to Forbes was Nike with a brand value of $27 billion (a 3.8% increase from 2015). Second was ESPN ($16.8billion/-2.9😵 and third was Adidas ($7 billion/12.9😵. Under Armour, UK based broadcaster Sky Sports, MLB Advanced Media, YES, Reebok, and NESN rounded out the top ten.
Official UFC sponsor Reebok was 9th on the list, with a brand value of $800 million, down 3.6% from last year.
No mixed martial artist was able to crack the top ten athletes, from a brand value standpoint. That list included Roger Federer, LeBron James, Phil Mickelson, Usain Bolt, Tiger Woods, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kevin Durant, Lionel Messi, Rory McIlroy, and Indian cricketer Mahandra Singh Dhoni, with brand values ranging from $36 million to $11 million.