One Championship’s wins and losses for 2021

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Hello reader,

When we were younger, my brothers enjoyed watching World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), an American media and entertainment company focused on, you guessed it, wrestling.

I never understood their fascination with it, but as an adult, I’ve gained an appreciation of how the entire WWE operation works and unfolds. It’s a well-oiled machine, and there’s so much involved with making sure it continues to be successful.

Here in Asia, one of the largest sports media properties around is mixed martial arts platform One Championship. Its parent company, Group One Holdings, is reportedly looking to list in the US through an IPO. While the company’s losses have widened, the money is going toward its growth – and it says it’s on the path to profitability in the long term.

Today we look at:

• Some numbers from Group One Holdings
• Traveloka’s latest round of financing
• Other newsy highlights such as Shopee’s most recent round of layoffs and Binance’s entry into New Zealand

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Let’s have a look at some financials

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Last year was a mixed bag for Group One Holdings, the parent company of One Championship. While it reported higher revenue for its 2021 financial year, it also saw its losses soar.

• Up and down: Group One saw US$67.7 million in revenue for FY 2021, a 19.2% increase from the year before. However, its losses stood at US$111 million, more than double the US$49.2 million figure it reported in FY 2020.
• The reason why: According to a company spokesperson, “2020 was an anomaly” due to Covid-19 restrictions, which meant that the group was unable to host its live events. With restrictions easing in 2021, the spokesperson said that the widening loss was attributed to the resumption of spending from hosting these events.
• Spend and grow: At the same time, the firm’s One Championship platform had the second highest digital viewership in 2021. A Nielsen report showed that the brand saw over 13.8 billion video views across social media.

Read more: One Championship parent reports higher revenue, losses widen

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