Combate Americas founder charts path to $1 billion valuation
Campbell McLaren: “We can safely say the company’s worth $200 to 220 million. We think our company will reach the big ‘b’ and billion-dollar company in just a few years.”
The UFC was founded in 1993 by Campbell McLaren, Rorion Gracie, Art Davie, Bob Meyrowitz, and David Isaacs. It sold to ZUFFA in 2001, and sold again to WEM-IMG in 2016 for 4 billion dollars, the largest sale in sports history. Now McLaren has done Jiu-Jitsu on the UFC, not going head to head directly, but instead focusing with leverage on an area of weakness. His Combate Americas is MMA with salsa – McLaren builds Latino fighting champions and serves Hispanic fans, one of the world’s most avid groups of combat sports enthusiasts.
Combate started as a reality show on cable net mun2 (now Universo), and has since moved to Azteca América, BeIN Sports, Telemundo, and now is home at the mighty Univision. Combate recently got a $20 million cash infusion from an investor group that includes insurance mogul and philanthropist Joe Plumeri, financier and diplomat Cliff Sobel, and Irving Place Capital CEO John Howard. The company took in $2 million in 2018, and is on track to reach $25 million.
In an interview with Emmy award-winning multimedia journalist and MediaMoves.com founder Veronica Villafañe for Forbes, McLaren talks about what happened, and what will happen.
“The UFC did horrible job of going after Hispanic fight fans, so I had an underserved audience that really loves combat sports that has never really had anything suited for their background,” he explains. “I saw a lot of rivalry I could tap into and knew I could find athletes that will fight with real passion and heart, because that’s the boxing tradition. Add to that a younger audience looking for faster way to consume content on their mobile devices and I realized my adapted way of MMA – of short-style bouts – fits perfectly into that.”
“We’re using media, primarily TV, to make it real, get eyeballs and the promotion that goes with the show. We also used the power of celebrities – like Daddy Yankee and Nacho – to make Combate look real very quickly. That’s one of the things that distinguishes us from everyone else. Many MMA groups start as live events. We are first and foremost a media product and content company.”
“Our growth is incredible on tv and on social media. But our future is OTT deals around the world. Amazon is very interested in us as a property for Mexico and South America. We’re talking to DAZN about Europe and Japan. … Our TV growth is spectacular. Our digital growth is beyond spectacular, sometimes with as many as 14 million people watching on Facebook live. We’re still a young company, but we have a very positive outlook.”
“We’re looking at 10 times revenue growth this year. I anticipate profitability in 2020 with revenues growing with the same multiples we have grown our audience, because eyeballs equals cash money. We can safely say the company’s worth $200 to 220 million. We think our company will reach the big ‘b’ and billion-dollar company in just a few years.”
The latest event, Reinas del Combate, will stream live on DAZN, TONIGHT at 10:00 p.m. The Queens of Combat event is headlined by Melissa ‘Super Mely’ Martinez vs. Caroline ‘Taz’ Gallardo.
