Transcript:

Caroline Woods: Bull riding is selling out Madison Square Garden, just like the NBA and Taylor Swift. And it’s not just a weekend show. It’s part of a huge growth play for TKO growth. Joining me now, Sean Gleason, CEO of Professional Bull Riders PBR. Sean, great to have you here.

Sean Gleason: Good to be on. Thanks for having me. Congratulations for ringing the bell.

Caroline Woods: You have a big event this weekend. I know, but I have to say I’m shocked at the popularity of bull riding. When did it become the IT ticket for New York City, Boston and other key cities?

Sean Gleason: It’s, you know, I’ve been there 25 years, so it hasn’t always been this great. First year Madison Square Garden, we were handing tickets out on the sidewalk to anybody that would come in. And here we are, back to back sellouts last year and this year. Three day sellout. So it’s been really the engine that started it was when we were acquired by WME, IMG, which became Endeavor EDR. And then ultimately now we’ve been acquired by TKO and having UFC and WWE as your sister companies, you get a lot of expertise, a lot of help, a lot of support. And it just has put our growth on steroids.

Caroline Woods: I wanted to ask you about that because I’m curious with WWE and UFC being part of the same company, do you sit around and trade secrets about how to make sports go viral? What have you learned from those organizations that have helped you really grow?

Sean Gleason: Yeah, we absolutely do that. Our marketing teams share a lot of information. We’re integrating a lot. So from a booking perspective, when we go to a venue, WWE and UFC have probably been there as many times as we have in some cases. So there’s a lot of shared knowledge, a lot of collaboration. We were just in Stamford at the WWE headquarters and filmed a bunch of TV packages for the broadcast. It’s just an awesome opportunity for bull riding and PBR to be in the same vein as those organizations. And we share a lot of customers too. If you look at the fan bases of UFC, WWE, and PBR, there’s a lot of similarities.

Caroline Woods: So what strategic advantages would you say you’ve had since being acquired by TKO?

Sean Gleason: Well, definitely the cross collaboration and being able to tap into the data and the knowledge and the tools that UFC and WWE have. And PBR, we’ve developed a lot of systems and best practices over the course of the years. So to be able to share those things, cross collaborate with the teams, it just leads to efficiency and marketing dollars. We don’t have to spend as many marketing dollars. We’re negotiating better deals in the buildings. We’ve got a lot of sponsorships. The TKO sponsorship group has been able to leverage what we do across UFC, WWE and PBR. Most recently announced a big Dodge deal that was all of the properties. So it’s opened a lot of doors for us. And really it’s just the passion and the cross collaboration between all of the different groups. Everybody’s a fan of the other sports. So we’ve been able to plug into that and it’s been fantastic.

Caroline Woods: Over 200 events annually with more than a million tickets sold, 80 million fans out there tuning in. I’m curious if you’re seeing that same type of growth selling out MSG, selling out Boston, TD Garden. Are you seeing that growth outside of traditional markets?

Sean Gleason: Absolutely. We’ll sell out Sacramento. We just sold out Chicago. We’ll be in the northwest later this year and those will sell out. It’s been this very fortunate run for us. A lot of hard work built this up to this point, but we’re seeing sellouts virtually everywhere we go with the tours. Four or five years ago we launched a team series that runs in the summer. We took one of the most individual sports in the world and made it a five-on-five team-based sport. We have ten franchises located in Austin and Nashville and other places where they compete head to head in the summer months. And that tour has just been growing like crazy too. So it’s just been a really good time to be in bull riding.

Caroline Woods: It’s interesting because we also hear so much about a choppy economy and consumers having to pull back. The fact that they’re clearly still spending on tickets shows they’re still spending money. Is it just that they’re such fans, or are they just looking for this kind of wild escape?

Sean Gleason: I think it’s both. Our core fans are going to save what they need to save to attend that event or those events they’ve been attending for years. But I also think people right now are looking for great experiences. They save and use their money for experiences as opposed to goods and services. In this experience economy, entertainment is a great place to be.

Caroline Woods: And it’s not just ticket sales. You also have streaming now with Unleash the Beast on Paramount Plus and CBS. Talk to us about that and how that helps the business.

Sean Gleason: We’ve been on CBS network for about 15 years and have a great partnership with them. Now with the merger we were able to put together a streaming deal with Paramount Plus. Every ride from the Unleash the Beast series is on Paramount Plus now. It’s great to have one spot for our fans to go to get it all. Our CBS broadcast continues to outrate a lot of other sports on the weekends. It’s surprising sometimes. We don’t always get the credit we deserve because we’ll come out and be the second or third most watched sport on a weekend behind the NFL. And then, you know, it’s bull riding, so not a lot of people are familiar with it.

Caroline Woods: Beyond ticket sales and streaming, what’s next? If I’m a fan tuning in or going to an event, what can I expect in five years?

Sean Gleason: We constantly evolve the product. The team series was a complete redefinition of our business and brand. But within the scope of what we’ve been doing for 35 years, every year the production gets better. At the core of it, it’s about the bulls and the bull riders. We have one of the most competitive fields we’ve ever seen. We have young talent coming in that grew up watching PBR and aspiring to be here. A lot of them are really, really good. It’s an exciting time to watch the competition platform unfold.

Caroline Woods: I need a few fun facts about bull riding. What’s the average age of a bull rider?

Sean Gleason: You have to be at least 18. They’ll ride depending on injury and wear and tear. Thirty is pretty old for a bull rider. It’s a young man’s sport. We’ll get a few into their 30s that do well. Those are the Tom Brady‘s of bull riding. They stay very fit and avoid big injuries. The bulls themselves have evolved to be incredible athletes. It’s all in the DNA. These bulls are born to buck. Every three years you’re seeing new bulls come to performance age. We’ve turned over the bulls about 15 or 20 times in my 25 years here. The breeding programs have made the bulls ranker and harder to ride. But bull riders only come along about once every 18 years. The quality of riders and bulls coming together is what makes the sport magic.

Caroline Woods: And this is a competition. What sort of prizes are the best bull riders walking away with?

Sean Gleason: We pay out about $10 million on this tour. The top bull rider will make about $2 million. We have three tours in the United States. Riders work their way up from single A to triple A to the big tour. It’s about the bull as much as the rider because the bull is scored on how difficult they are to ride. You want the hardest bull. You stay on for eight seconds with one hand in the rope. The bull gets 0 to 50 points and the rider gets 0 to 50 points. The winner is the guy who rode the hardest bull, not the easiest.

Caroline Woods: Just to wrap things up, what’s the investor takeaway?

Sean Gleason: We are wholly owned by TKO. It’s a pure sports and entertainment play. Business is good. Tickets are selling. Sponsorship is fantastic. The consumer is strong. Entertainment experiences are one of the last things affected by discretionary spending. We’re not seeing any weakness in the market. We’re seeing nothing but growth.

Caroline Woods: All right. We’ll leave it there. Really appreciate your insights. Thanks so much.

Sean Gleason: Glad to be here.

Caroline Woods: That is Sean Gleason, CEO of Professional Bull Riders.