Netflix Is Suddenly A Player For NBA, UFC, Other Live Sports Following $5 Billion Deal For WWE RAW

Netflix is officially a player in live sporting events, a fray the streamer was previously reluctant to enter.

Tuesday, Netflix announced a 10-year, $5 billion agreement to stream WWE Raw beginning in January 2025.

Raw has aired on USA Network since 2005.

Netflix has the option to cancel the 10-year deal with WWE after five years and has the option to extend the deal for an additional 10 years, according to a filing from WWE parent company TKO.

A $500 million annual average is the most aggressive sum any broadcaster has invested in professional wrestling.

Netflix is all in on WWE. And perhaps live sports.

The deal with WWE undoubtedly had other sports leagues wildly intrigued by the possibility of cashing in on Netflix.

Particularly, the NBA.

The NBA's rights deals with ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery expire after the 2024-25 season. Multiple reports say that NBC and Amazon will look to join the league's two current partners as part of a wide distribution plan.

While no one of note has mentioned Netflix as a possible partner for the NBA, neither did they ever mention Netflix during the many reports regarding the negotiations for Raw.

Reporters instead publicized the possibility of Raw moving to Amazon, TNT, or Disney.

If WWE is worth half a billion a year to Netflix, it's not hard to imagine the streamer making an aggressive bid for the NBA.

And the UFC.

Suddenly, Netflix should be viewed as the chief threat to ESPN retaining exclusive rights to the UFC, a seven-year, $300 million that expires in 2025.

WWE merged with UFC last year to form TKO. Several of the key figures who negotiated the deal with Netflix on behalf of WWE (TKO CEO Ari Emanuel and President Mark Shapiro) will spearhead the next round of negotiations for the UFC.

Industry insiders predicted the WWE-UFC merger would eventually see both brands under the same broadcast umbrella.

They thought it could be with Disney. It's now more likely it could with Netflix.

Netflix adding both WWE and UFC would make the platform a near must-have for combat sports fans, year around.

Netflix's advantages

What's most intriguing about Netflix's foray into live sports is the advantages it holds over its competitors.

Traditional television networks like ESPN, CBS, NBC, Fox Sports, and TNT do not have the financial resources to compete with Netflix -- or any member of the FAANG tech titans.

Netflix can outbid any of the television networks for the sports properties it prefers.

And while the likes of Amazon and Apple have the resources to outbid Netflix, they lack the reach.

A recent chart published by Wrestlenomic details the wide lead in subscribers Netflix holds over other streaming services:

Translation: the sports leagues will favor partnering with Netflix over the others, so long as the money is equal or close to it.

And that ought to be concerning for services like Amazon Prime, Peacock, and AppleTV+, whose strategy to compete with Netflix included topping the industry leader in live sports.

"This is a major game-changer, the first time Netflix has gone full in on live sports," Clay Travis said Tuesday about the Netflix-WWE Deal.

"Smart move by both."

Indeed.