The IMG Media agency has signed a three year agreement to globally represent and distribute all media rights for the World Series of Fighting (WSOF) mixed martial arts organisation.
To date, all WSOF events have been hosted in the US – in Las Vegas, Ontario, and Atlantic City – with upcoming events to be hosted in Miami, Chicago and Houston. The NBC network holds the US rights to the WSOF under a multi-year deal.
Plans are in place to expand the number of WSOF events to between eight and 10 for 2014-15 and for the shows to be staged internationally in venues such as Vancouver, Brazil, the UK and Eastern Europe.
Hillary Mandel, IMG Media’s senior vice-president and head of media for North America, said: “MMA continues to be a highly sought after and highly rated sport with very attractive male demographics. Even though WSOF is less than a year old, it has been exceptionally well received and has attracted top quality fighters, both experienced and up and coming.”
She added: “We see great potential for ‘blue chip’ fight programming and the value of distributing a series with high-level production values that has a strong foundation through its management, broadcast partners and investors.”