{"id":82287,"date":"2023-11-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2023\/11\/22\/pif-backed-sports-venture-acquires-mma-rival-bellator-from-paramount\/"},"modified":"2023-11-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T00:00:00","slug":"pif-backed-sports-venture-acquires-mma-rival-bellator-from-paramount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2023\/11\/22\/pif-backed-sports-venture-acquires-mma-rival-bellator-from-paramount\/","title":{"rendered":"PIF-backed sports venture acquires MMA rival Bellator from Paramount"},"content":{"rendered":"

MMA M&A- <\/strong>PIF-backed Professional Fighters League, a rival to the Ultimate Fighting <\/strong>Championship brand, is buying Bellator MMA from Paramount. <\/strong>The US-based PFL<\/a>, which is backed by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has acquired rival fighting franchise Bellator MMA from Paramount, PFL said in a statement<\/a> yesterday that got plenty of ink in the global business press. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a power move: <\/strong>PFL is challenging industry leader Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC<\/a>) as kingpin of the mixed martial arts arena. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. <\/p>\n

What they said<\/strong>: \u201cPFL is now a global powerhouse in MMA,\u201d said Donn Davis, PFL\u2019s founder and chairman. \u201cOur Bellator acquisition turbocharges PFL\u2019s mission to innovate the sport and become the industry co-leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PIF\u2019s buy-in made the transaction possible:<\/strong>PIF created sports investment company SRJ<\/a> over the summer; SRJ then poured USD 100 mn into PFL in August, marking it the sport-focused fund\u2019s first major investment. \u201cThere is no better global investor with industrial-strength capital [than PIF] to help us achieve our global vision,\u201d Davis said in an interview<\/a> last August.<\/p>\n

The Kingdom is placing hefty bets on sports: <\/strong>We\u2019ve been throwing ourselves into sports ranging from football, to golf, cage fighting, and cricket, with Saudi investors reportedly committing USD 6.3 bn the industry since 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Professional Fighters League a serious power move to acquire MMA rival and challenge industry leader UFC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2575],"tags":[10,2720,14,416,154,417,8],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-82287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ma-watch","tag-enterpriseam-ksa","tag-ma","tag-ma-watch","tag-martial-arts","tag-pif","tag-professional-fighters-league","tag-sports","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"2215a245-ea4e-42c9-97fe-0eb6fb973459","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2023\/11\/1179.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"PIF-backed sports venture acquires MMA rival Bellator from Paramount","related_issue":[82275],"teaser":"The Professional Fighters League a serious power move to acquire MMA rival and challenge industry leader UFC","voice_url":"https:\/\/s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/ent.news\/audio\/2024\/1\/.d3e13e41-9838-4f97-9eb9-fce39add2e43.mp3"},"yoast_head":"\nPIF-backed sports venture acquires MMA rival Bellator from Paramount - 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