Sports Giants Shine on Wall Street, but Not All Escape Revenue Declines 

It’s been a testy week for the stock market at large, as many companies with heavy sports ties saw big dips. 

But on Thursday, several notable publicly traded sports entities reported revenue gains from their most recent quarters. From baseball to racing to fighting, here are some of the biggest winners on Wall Street.

• Formula One: Owned by Liberty Media, it saw a 20% revenue spike to $871 million. However, the period included eight Grands Prix compared to six races during the same three months in 2023.
• Braves: The MLB team saw revenue grow 4% to $266 million despite hosting only 40 home games in the quarter, compared to 43 during the same time last year.
• TKO: The company that was formed out of the $21 billion UFC-WWE merger in September 2023 reported revenue of $851.2 million. UFC’s revenue increased 29% from the same quarter last year to $394.4 million. WWE’s revenue increased 11% from the same period a year prior to $456.8 million.

The revenue growth continues recent upward trends for all three organizations.

A Different Story

Two other sports-centric companies were able to beat analysts’ expectations despite reporting quarterly revenue dips.

Under Armour’s revenue dropped 10% to $1.2 billion, but that was $40 million higher than anticipated. Apparel was down 8% to $758 million, while footwear fell 15% to $310 million. The brand reported a net loss of $305 million for the quarter.

Penn Entertainment, which operates the fledgling ESPN Bet app, reported revenue of $1.66 billion, just under 1% down from 2023, and $10 million more than what was expected. Revenue in Penn’s interactive unit, which includes ESPN Bet, dropped 9% to $232.6 million.