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ONE taps CAA to build an Asia licensing business after its U.S. media strategy underperformed; first products ship Q2 2025.
95%
of its live gate revenue
50
live events annually across Thailand
8,200
per show in 2024
12%
from 2022 as the promoter shifted venues from arenas…
ONE Championship appointed CAA Brand Management as its official licensing agent across Asia, the Singapore-based mixed martial arts promoter announced Tuesday. The deal gives CAA's consumer products division control over merchandise strategy, retail partnerships, and brand extensions in the region where ONE generates 95% of its live gate revenue.
CAA Brand Management, a division of Creative Artists Agency, will handle licensing for apparel, accessories, gaming products, and collectibles. The appointment formalizes a relationship that began informally last year when CAA advisors sat in on ONE's conversations with Thai retail chains. ONE runs roughly 50 live events annually across Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Attendance averaged 8,200 per show in 2024, down 12% from 2022 as the promoter shifted venues from arenas to soundstages for its Amazon Prime Video broadcasts.
The move matters because ONE has struggled to monetize its audience beyond media rights. The company sold a minority stake to Guggenheim Partners in 2021 at a $1.4 billion valuation, then spent two years pitching U.S. networks before settling on a non-exclusive Amazon deal worth an estimated $8 million annually. Merchandise revenue accounted for less than 4% of total revenue in 2023, according to two people familiar with the financials. UFC, by comparison, books roughly 12% of revenue from consumer products, and its Asia business is a rounding error.
CAA brings a different playbook. The agency built Bud Light's NFL licensing program and structured Travis Kelce's consumer deals before his dating life became the product. Its head of brand management, Marc Geiger's former lieutenant at WME before the CAA merger, has spent the past eighteen months mapping Asia's retail fragmentation. ONE's fan base skews male, 18-34, with household incomes under $40,000 in purchasing-power terms. That's below the threshold for premium athleisure but ideal for mobile gaming tie-ins and convenience-store apparel.
The real test is whether CAA can extract value from ONE's intellectual property without a dominant athlete. The promotion's roster includes 180 fighters under contract, but no one moves Pay-Per-View needles the way Conor McGregor or Jon Jones do. Demetrious Johnson, the former UFC flyweight champion who joined ONE in 2018, retired last year. Current champions are celebrities in their home markets—Rodtang Jitmuangnon in Thailand, Stamp Fairtex among female fighters—but lack English fluency for Western brand partnerships. CAA will likely lean into regional deals: energy drinks in Manila, fight shorts at Bangkok department stores, YouTube creator collabs.
Watch for CAA's first product drops in Q2 2025. The agency typically launches with fast-fashion capsules to test price sensitivity before committing to inventory. ONE's next major event is in Bangkok on March 23, which would align with a merchandise push during Muay Thai season. Also worth tracking: whether CAA negotiates participation rights in ONE's next funding round. The agency has taken equity in three sports properties since 2022, usually in exchange for fee deferrals.
ONE Championship has been hunting a second revenue stream since its Amazon deal fell short of internal targets. The licensing appointment suggests management believes the answer is retail distribution, not broadcast expansion. CAA's cut will run 10-15% of wholesale revenue, standard for the category. If the agency can't generate $15 million annually from licensing within thirty-six months, the contract includes performance outs.
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