WWE has sold sponsorship rights to a prime piece of real estate: the center of its ring.
On Friday, WWE announced a “record-setting” pact with Logan Paul and KSI’s Prime Hydration beverage brand to become the wrestling entertainment company’s exclusive “official hydration drink partner” and the first partner to ever appear on the center of the WWE ring.
With the deal, WWE is following the playbook of UFC, now its corporate cousin under TKO Group, formed last year in a merger engineered by UFC owner Endeavor. Earlier this year, TKO brought together the global partnerships teams at UFC and WWE to form “a singular global partnerships unit with a unified sponsorship strategy,” the company said.
WWE’s new deal with Prime comes after UFC in January 2023 struck an exclusive global partnership with the drink brand. Paul, a digital influencer and wrestling pro, also has a talent deal to appear in WWE’s SmackDown.
Terms of the WWE-Prime sponsorship deal weren’t disclosed. WWE said Prime Hydration will receive “unprecedented exposure and integration” including on center-mat branding at premium live events including WrestleMania and Money in the Bank along with “key brand placement” within WWE events including WrestleMania XL and Survivor Series, match sponsorships, co-presenter designations and product activations at future live events, and social support from WWE Superstars across retail and digital activations.
“What Logan and his team have built in a short time is phenomenal and we’re excited to help showcase Prime Hydration across our biggest events,” WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque said.
Paul commented, “Combining two of my greatest achievements into one knockout partnership is a dream come true. We’ve worked incredibly hard at Prime to build a brand that disrupts the beverage industry and it’s time to join forces with the global leader in sports entertainment.” Paul co-founded Prime in 2022 with KSI, the British YouTuber, rapper, boxer and entrepreneur.
In January, TKO announced 10-year deal withNetflixfor WWE’s “Monday Night Raw” that delivers a significant step-up in fees for the franchise. TKO’s deal WWE “Raw” deal with Netflix has an initial 10-year term for an aggregate rights fee of more than $5 billion, or $500 million annually. That’s up from WWE’s current five-year deal for “Raw” with NBCUniversal, said to be worth approximately $250 million-$260 million per year. Netflix has the option to extend the pact for an additional 10 years or to opt out after five years.
Separately, Netflix this week announced its next live sports event featuring Jake Paul (Logan Paul’s brother) taking on former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in a boxing match scheduled for July 20.
