TKO Group Holdings has reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $1.597 billion, a 26% increase over the same period last year.
The parent company of WWE, UFC, and IMG released the results on Wednesday, alongside an announcement that its board has authorized up to an additional $1 billion in share repurchases. This involves buying back its own stock from the open market, which typically supports the share price.
TKO reaffirmed its full-year 2026 guidance, targeting revenue between $5.675 billion and $5.775 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $2.240 billion to $2.290 billion.
“Adjusted EBITDA” is the company’s preferred measure of operating profit, stripping out taxes, debt costs, and various non-cash accounting charges to give a picture of how the underlying businesses are performing.
Net income, the bottom-line profit after all expenses and taxes, reached $249.8 million for the quarter, up from $165.5 million a year earlier.
WWE: Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia fuels live events surge
WWE generated $475.7 million in revenue for the quarter, a 22% increase, year on year. The standout driver was live events and hospitality, which jumped 62% to $123.5 million from $76.3 million in Q1 2025. TKO attributed this almost entirely to “an increase in financial incentive package revenues, most notably for Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia.”
January’s Royal Rumble in Riyadh was the first time the event had ever been staged outside North America, held at a purpose-built temporary outdoor stadium in the King Abdullah Financial District on January 31. It was the 14th event WWE has held in Saudi Arabia under its 10-year partnership with the regime.
The financial incentive package (TKO’s terminology for the site/hosting fee paid by Saudi Arabia to host WWE events) has historically been estimated at roughly $50 million to $55 million per event.
The Q1 data aligns with those estimates. In Q1 2025, when the Royal Rumble took place domestically in Indianapolis, WWE’s live events revenue was $76.3 million with no Saudi event on the calendar.
The $47.2 million year-over-year increase, which offsets the loss of domestic gate revenue from the US-based 2025 event, points to a Saudi fee in the neighborhood of $50 million for the Riyadh show.
That figure would be broadly consistent with the deal’s established economics. As of the Night of Champions event in June 2025, WWE had earned an estimated $600 million from Saudi events since the partnership began in 2018, according to Wrestlenomics.
With 2026 expected to feature three Saudi events instead of the usual two, Saudi Arabia remains by far WWE’s most lucrative live events partner.
WWE’s media rights revenue also climbed, rising 12% to $281.7 million. The increase reflects the impact of distribution deals with Netflix, which began carrying Monday Night Raw in January 2025 under a 10-year agreement reportedly worth $5 billion, and ESPN, whose direct-to-consumer streaming platform became the U.S. home of WWE premium live events beginning last September under a five-year deal valued at $1.6 billion.
Consumer products revenue rose to $44.3 million, up from $38.0 million.
UFC: The Paramount era begins
UFC posted $401.2 million in revenue, up 12% from the prior year. Media rights, production and content revenue rose 23% to $275.3 million, driven by the new distribution agreement with Paramount that launched in January 2026.
Under the seven-year, $7.7 billion deal, Paramount became the exclusive US home of all UFC events.
Spread evenly, the agreement works out to roughly $1.1 billion per year, although the payment schedule is weighted toward the back end of the contract, meaning the early years pay less.
The deal effectively replaced UFC’s previous arrangement with ESPN and eliminated the pay-per-view model for numbered events in the U.S., making all fights available through a standard Paramount+ subscription.
Live events and hospitality revenue declined by $10.1 million to $48.5 million, largely because Q1 2025 included a Fight Night held in Saudi Arabia that had no equivalent this year. Partnerships and marketing revenue grew modestly to $67.1 million.
UFC’s Adjusted EBITDA rose 12% to $254.5 million, with margin holding steady at 63%. Higher athlete, production, and event costs, particularly related to UFC 324, the first event under the Paramount agreement, partly offset the revenue gains.
IMG and On Location: Olympics prep boosts numbers
The IMG segment, encompassing the IMG sports marketing agency and the On Location hospitality business, saw the largest percentage gain of any TKO holding. Revenue rose 38% to $655.4 million, almost entirely driven by a $179.2 million increase in live events and hospitality revenue tied to preparations for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
On Location is handling hospitality sales for the Games, and much of the revenue recognized in Q1 came from pre-payments ahead of the event.
This dynamic was also visible on the balance sheet, where restricted cash rose to $937.3 million from $354.9 million at year-end. TKO also noted that approximately $582.4 million of the held pre-payments related to the FIFA World Cup were included in operating cash flows for the quarter.
Capital returns and debt
TKO returned approximately $1.0 billion to shareholders during the quarter through stock buybacks and dividend payments. In March, the company struck an accelerated share repurchase agreement worth $800 million, receiving an initial delivery of roughly 3.1 million shares. A quarterly dividend of $0.78 per share was paid on March 31.
Total debt stood at $4.671 billion as of March 31, up from $3.783 billion at year-end 2025, after TKO borrowed $900 million during the quarter.
Cash on hand was $788.9 million. After subtracting that cash from the debt total, TKO’s net leverage stood at 2.3 times its trailing 12-month operating profit. This is a ratio investors use to gauge how comfortably a company can service its debt.
Looking ahead
TKO executives highlighted two marquee events on the near-term horizon. UFC Freedom 250, the event planned for the grounds of the White House on June 14, is expected to be simulcast on CBS and Paramount+. On Location’s partnership with the FIFA World Cup, which begins in the U.S. this summer, also figures prominently in the company’s outlook for the remainder of the year.
“With UFC Freedom 250 at the White House and On Location’s FIFA World Cup partnership, TKO will take center stage this summer,” said TKO President and COO Mark Shapiro.
TKO shares traded around $187 on May 6, ahead of the company’s earnings call scheduled for 5.00 pm ET.
