White House UFC spectacle made sense despite $30M loss, TKO Group's Mark Shapiro says

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — UFC owner TKO Group ( TKO ) would do the Freedom 250 event at the White House held on June 14 all over again, despite losing about $30 million on the global sporting spectacle.

"We built long-term deals into it, and I think, yeah, a lot has been made of that [loss]. It's nothing," TKO Group president and COO Mark Shapiro told Yahoo Finance from the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Tech Conference (video above). "It's a one-timer that has no impact on our numbers long-term or our growth outlook. But what it did do was give us huge exposure."

"The earned media was over a billion dollars," Shapiro added. "We're walking in international cities right now looking for financial incentive packages in order to bring our events to those cities. And most of those conversations would start with let's discuss the White House. So it really made a lot of noise, and it caught a lot of folks' attention, which is translating into new business for us."

The loss from Freedom 250 didn't slow down TKO's financials in the second quarter by any stretch of the imagination.

TKO Group delivered strong second quarter financial results, posting an 18% increase to $1.55 billion. Adjusted EBITDA expanded 23% to $650 million.

The quarterly momentum was highlighted by high-profile live spectacles, including the historic UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House, as well as major WWE draws like WrestleMania 42 and Backlash, which continued to drive record sponsorship and media rights revenue.

Performance was also helped by the company's $7.7 billion, exclusive seven-year rights deal with Paramount ( PSKY ).

Executives raised their full-year 2026 revenue guidance to between $5.77 billion and $5.82 billion alongside an upgraded adjusted EBITDA outlook.

"TKO is a contracted, capital-light cash machine built to beat and raise," Jefferies analyst Randy Konik said. "The print confirmed the Paramount flywheel is spinning, World Cup economics are running hot, Zuffa boxing is ahead of plan, and buybacks are set to resume."

Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor, host of the ' Power Players With Brian Sozzi' podcast and a member of Yahoo Finance's editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi , Instagram , and LinkedIn . Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.