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Mark Shapiro

Chief Operating Officer, President & Director, TKO Group Holdings

Search every verified Mark Shapiro interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Mark Shapiro, President and COO of TKO Group Holdings, appeared alongside CEO Ari Emanuel in a CNBC interview on September 18, 2026, discussing TKO's growth outlook for UFC and WWE, sports valuations, and Emanuel's memoir. During the conversation, Shapiro addressed ongoing appraisal rights litigation related to Endeavor's take-private deal, stating that the process is ongoing and noting that Endeavor shareholders received a 60% premium in the transaction. He also commented on Emanuel's temperament, describing him as more even-keeled than in his younger years but still high-energy and curious. On TKO's Q2 2026 earnings call in early August, Shapiro discussed the company's financial performance and raised full-year guidance for revenue and adjusted EBITDA. He attributed slower first-half growth to a high number of international events that limited global partnership sales, while noting that many multi-year global partnership deals would take effect in the second half. Shapiro also addressed merger and acquisition speculation, stating that TKO was not hunting for M&A and had no conversations with FWNK or any other party, calling such speculation "flat-out seeing ghosts." He emphasized the company's commitment to bringing its product internationally despite near-term financial trade-offs, saying TKO would make investments for the long term, and stated that the company prioritizes fan experience and improving profitability.

Recent appearances

Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“Look, here's what I'll tell you. It's running through the process right now. We're proud that Endeavor shareholders got a 60% premium when we signed the deal with Endeavor uh Silver Lake. Let's start. Let's start right there. So, those shareholders got a 60% premium. At the same time, we know our long-term stockholders are quite happy that they received the highest ever free cash flow multiple for immediate take priv”

“At 24 to 25 we grew 90 plus percent because WWE was new to TKO and we took the playbook from UFC, we applied it to WWE and we took down the low hanging fruit. This year, what you're seen is 2 and 8% respectively in the first two quarters because we have so many international events this first half of the year, which don't allow us to sell as much as many global partnerships as we otherwise would, but it's backloaded.”

“But what it will do is it will increase discretionary time. And in increasing discretionary time that will increase solo digital consumption, individual consumption. And you know what that does after a while? That will strengthen the demand for physical aggregation. People, audiences, fans, consumers, they will crave physical aggregation. And there's no substitute for live events. Sports is at the epicenter.”

“But like there is no ceiling and just up and down the line name your sport, right? It's for all the reasons we've talked about viewership, sponsorship, marketing, countries that are looking for economic impact, so they're willing to pay or give financial incentive packages to bring your circus to town. There's just no stopping it.”

“This isn't about politics. Enough of that. We get enough of that. To Brian's point, we're red. We're blue. You're in the center. Whatever it is, we're not here to talk about policy and politics. We're here because we're fortunate enough that the president of the United States has decided, you know what? It's our 250th birthday and we're going to open it up to a major event and we're going to put it on the greatest st”

“It's about bringing you events and matchups that will drive economic impact and we do that in spades whether it's hotels or it's fans coming out to the arenas or your restaurants being full like that's really the name of the game and then at the end of the day everybody wins.”

Other executives at TKO Group Holdings

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