Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc.

First quarter 2021 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. With that, I will now turn the call over to Samantha Stewart.

Good afternoon and welcome to Endeavor's first quarter 2021 earnings call. A short while ago, we issued a press release, which you can view on our investor relations site, investor.endeavorco.com. A recording of this call will also be available via this site. Today, you'll hear from Endeavor CEO, Ari Emanuel, our president, Mark Shapiro, and our CFO, Jason Lublin, before we open up for questions. The purpose of the call is to provide you with information regarding our first quarter 2021 performance, in addition to our financial outlook for the balance of the year. I do want to remind everyone that the information discussed will include forward-looking statements and or projections that involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, as described in the risk factor section of our Filings with Securities and Exchange Commission. including our IPO perspectives, as updated by our first quarter 10Q. If these risks or uncertainties ever materialize or any assumptions prove incorrect, our results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and projections. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update them publicly in light of new information or future events, except as legally required. Our commentary today will also include non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe provide an additional tool for investors to use in evaluating ongoing operating results and trends. These measures should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP metrics for our reported results can be found in our press release issued today, as well as on our IR site. With that, I'll hand it over to Ari.

Thanks, Sam. The past year has been by far one of the most challenging, but also one of the most rewarding for our company. We were tested at every possible way, and our teams rose to meet every challenge, demonstrating resilience and ingenuity at every turn. Despite the setbacks COVID-19 provided, we weathered the storm and laid a strong foundation for the remainder of 2021 and beyond. Shortly, Mark Shapiro will walk you through some more specific examples of this, and Jason will share more details around our financial results and guidance for the year. First, I want to spend a few minutes on the encouraging recovery signs emerging across our portfolio and how the convergence of technology, sports, entertainment, media, and gaming play to our strength as an integrated company that both owns and represents IP and content. As more states and countries loosen travel and gathering restrictions and vaccination rates increase, we are beginning to experience accelerated demand across our 800-plus global events portfolio. As you might recall, the UFC and PBR were two of the first sports organizations to resume live events last year and two of the first to bring full crowds back. This provides a blueprint for other events across our portfolio, from Frieze Art Fair to EuroLeague basketball. Every on-sale brings new perspective and insight into the pent-up demand globally from consumers. Much of the demand is coming via our events and experience business, which includes On Location, acquired in January 2020, just before the pandemic took hold. We are thrilled to be able to share on this call that the International Olympic Committee, IOC, today named on location the official global hospitality provider for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, covering three Olympics, beginning with Paris 2024. The significant relationship marked the first time the IOC has appointed a company as a global hospitality provider for multiple editions of the Games. Other distinguished partners to on location include NFL, NCAA, and PGA championships, as well as more than 500 music tours and festivals like Coachella. Just as we're seeing the demand for live events and experience of all kinds, we are witnessing strong demand for all forms of premium content across all distribution platforms. The ever-consolidating media landscape around us is a testament to the enduring value of premium IP and the desire for streaming leaders to gain scale through investment in differentiated content. We view the combination of WarnerMedia and Discovery, along with Amazon's acquisition of MGM, as proof point that content is in high demand and short supply, and that our positioning in this ecosystem favors long-term growth as investment continues. Technology leaders and incumbent media companies have to power their SVOD and AVOD services while still programming their linear channels. And as demand increases, there is a finite number of IP creators to meet that demand, thereby increasing the value of talent we represent and the content we own or represent. one thing I'll continue to underscore in these earnings calls is that we are agnostic to all forms of distribution and have creators for all distribution platforms. To give you a snapshot just within television, we pair talent from writers to actors to showrunners with IP. We then sell these series more than 350 in 2020 to broadcasters, cable, channels, streamers, social, and gaming platforms. Within streaming alone, we remain one of the largest suppliers of content to the biggest platforms like Netflix and Amazon, and increasingly to the newer platforms like HBO Max and Parallel Plus. As we look to sports rights, the same concept around supply and demand applies. There is a scarcity in rights and more competition than ever across both traditional networks and to secure those rights. As a result, record deals are being negotiated. Beyond our seven-year domestic deal for the UFC with ESPN and ESPN+, we also are seeing increased demand for rights internationally, as evidenced by our recent UFC rights deal in China. And as a reminder, We're selling media rights globally on behalf of more than 150 clients, such as the NFL and NHL, in addition to our own properties in over 160 territories. We're also often packaging these rights with original programming, and our Endeavor streaming platform provides streaming services for organizations like the NFL, NBA, and UEFA. Sports betting is another growing industry, particularly in the United States. Through IMG Arena, we work with more than 470 leading sports book brands worldwide to deliver live streaming video and data feeds for more than 45,000 sports events annually. The point I'm making is that we benefit from all trends in media, content, sports, events, and gaming, and remain well positioned to continue capitalizing on and growing alongside the high-growth industries in which we operate. With that, I'll turn it over to Mark Shapiro to walk you through our business in greater detail.