Industry expert downgrades Bare Knuckle boxing’s ‘greatly exaggerated’ PPV buys

The whole point of estimating pay-per-view (PPV) buys is to establish a number that is generally in the neighborhood of the final tally, while also providing a margin for error in both directions.

Touting 200,000 PPV buys with a plus or minus of 150,000 is what we call “doing it wrong.”

I’m not sure how else to explain the recent estimate from Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC), which had last month’s “Malignaggi vs. Lobov” event in Tampa markedly downgraded by a new report from MMA Fighting.

Industry expert, Dave Meltzer, breaks down the “greatly exaggerated” number.

“Reports the Paulie Malignaggi vs. Artem Lobov bare knuckle boxing match on June 22 did better numbers than UFC did on many of its pay-per-view shows appear to be greatly exaggerated.

Based on industry estimates, the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships look to have done in the range of 18,000 buys on traditional television pay-per-view. Digital numbers for FITE TV are unavailable, but it is extremely rare that a pay-per-view event that airs on television does nearly the same number on digital. The BKFC show is believed to have done well based on the standards of a FITE TV broadcast, but unless it’s a giant UFC or boxing event, doing even 25,000 buys on Internet pay-per-view is a rarity.”

BKFC 6 had a lot of hype surrounding its most recent event, thanks to the high-profile feud between retired boxing champion, Paulie Malignaggi, and UFC import, Artem Lobov, while drawing additional buzz from MMA megastar Conor McGregor.

Meltzer also notes that Google searches can be a strong (but not perfect) predictor of PPV buys. When UFC hits 500,000 searches, the return is generally in the 150,000 range. One million searches results in 300,000 buys.

BKFC 6 produced 200,000 searches.

The promotion is expected to return to action with BKFC 7 in August, headlined by UFC veterans Jason Knight and Leonard Garcia. It will be interesting to see if newer fans who tuned in for “Malignaggi vs. Lobov” will stick around for next month’s effort.

Stay tuned.

MMAMania.com

Malignaggi vs. Lobov estimated at 18,000 television PPV buys



Reports the Paulie Malignaggi vs. Artem Lobov bare knuckle boxing match on June 22 did better numbers than UFC did on many of its pay-per-view shows appear to be greatly exaggerated.

Based on industry estimates, the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships look to have done in the range of 18,000 buys on traditional television pay-per-view. Digital numbers for FITE TV are unavailable, but it is extremely rare that a pay-per-view event that airs on television does nearly the same number on digital. The BKFC show is believed to have done well based on the standards of a FITE TV broadcast, but unless it’s a giant UFC or boxing event, doing even 25,000 buys on Internet pay-per-view is a rarity.

Generally, for events that air on television pay-per-view, doing 15 percent additional on digital is normal, and 25 percent, like happened in October for the Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov fight, is unusually high. The exception this year was the May 25 All Elite Wrestling Double or Nothing show, which did almost as many buys on B/R Live as it did on television pay-per-view in the United States.

Promoter David Feldman got a lot of publicity when telling MMA Junkie this past week that, “We got our digital numbers right away. In April, we did a certain amount, and in June, we did six times that digitally. It’s given us a gauge that we’re gong to end up at the 200,000 line.”

Of those 18,000 pay-per-view buys, roughly 37.5 percent of them came from UFC fans who had ordered UFC 235, the Jon Jones vs. Anthony Smith headlined event from Las Vegas, which was the last major UFC event on television pay-per-view via television. Roughly 22.6 percent of the BKFC buyers had ordered the second Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight, the last major boxing event, via television. The crossover with pro wrestling was minimal, has only 1.2 percent ordered AEW Double or Nothing and 0.3 percent ordered WWE Stomping Grounds. However, the WWE television pay-per-view audience is greatly down because the events air on the WWE’s steaming network at a much lower price.

BKFC did 200,000 Google searches, beating the UFC Fight Night event that same night in Greenville, S.C. Google searches are a good predictor of pay-per-view numbers, but not perfect. Most UFC events that last year did more than 150,000 buys topped 500,000 searches, and that topped 300,000 buys did in excess of 1 million searches.

MMAFighting.com

Meanwhile, from themmaholes.com.....

Bare Knuckle boxing outdraws UFC in PPV buys — by nearly double

Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) is expected to reach 200,000 pay-per-view (PPV) buys, according to promoter David Feldman, for the much-ballyhooed “Malignaggi vs. Lobov” combat sports event last month in Tampa, Florida (highlights here).

That would put BKFC 6 at roughly double what Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) managed to generate with UFC 236 last April. And if you’re blaming that on ESPN+, then flashback to roughly one year before, when UFC 225 did just 150,000 PPV buys in June of 2018.

“We got our digital numbers right away,” Feldman told MMA Junkie. “In April, we did a certain amount, and in June, we did six times that digitally. It’s given us a gauge that we’re going to end up at the 200,000 line.”

And around $8 million in the black.