Eleven Sports Becomes Exclusive Provider of UFC in United Kingdom, Ireland

UFC and Eleven Sports announced a new broadcast partnership for the United Kingdom and Ireland starting in January 2019. The global sports provider has further strengthened its growing offer for sports fans by securing the rights to all 42 live UFC events in 2019, as well as over 150 hours of UFC original and archive programming in a multi-year agreement.

UFC Fight Nights will be shown live on Eleven Sports, while Eleven will also have the option to make some events available in partnership with other broadcast platforms. Fight Nights that are shown live on Eleven Sports will also be available on demand in full after the event.

UFC, the world’s leading MMA organization, is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2018 and has grown to be a premium global sports brand, with over 284 million fans globally. As well as holding successful events all over the world, 2018 brought two sell-out shows to the UK — first at O2 Arena in London, and second in Liverpool in May.

The partnership with Eleven Sports provides UFC with a new broadcast home in the UK and Ireland, where it will receive center stage treatment and provide the passionate and dedicated fans incredible access to all the action from around the world.

“We have worked very successfully with Eleven Sports in Belgium and Luxembourg and we are looking forward to extending our partnership here in the UK and Ireland,” says David Shaw, UFC Senior Vice President, International and Content. “The UK and Ireland are amongst UFC’s strongest markets globally and with Eleven Sports making a significant impact here, it made perfect sense to partner with them to showcase our thrilling product to our loyal and passionate fans.”

“UFC has become a massive brand which has built a hugely dedicated and engaged following over 25 years, making it a perfect fit for our fan-centric strategy,” says Danny Menken, Group Managing Director, Eleven Sports. “We are a big supporter of combat sports across our global markets and the fresh and innovative approach that we have taken with our properties has been very successful. We are looking forward to creating the same added value for the legions of MMA fans in the UK and Ireland.”

UFC is the latest major sports rights property to have its broadcast rights acquired by Eleven Sports, following the addition of top-flight football leagues, LaLiga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), Eredivisie (Netherlands), Chinese Super League (from 2019), and Allsvenskan (Sweden) — all exclusively live in the UK and Ireland for the next three seasons.