Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc.

Good afternoon. My name is Emma, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Endeavor first quarter 2022 results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again, press the star one. Thank you. James Marsh, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

Good afternoon, and welcome to Endeavor's first quarter 2022 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 that site for at least 30 days. Today you'll hear from Endeavor CEO Ariel Emanuel and CFO Jason Lublin before we open for questions. The purpose of this call is to provide you with information regarding our first quarter 2022 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 the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our 10Qs and 10K. If these risks or uncertainties ever materialize, or any assumptions proven correct, 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 turn it over to Ari.

Thanks, James. Looking back at our first year as a public company, I think a lot about the conversations we had with our various stakeholders at the time of our IPO. We fielded many questions about the future of premium content, the increased value of sports rights, the speed of recovery of live events, and the expansion of sports betting globally and throughout the United States. Since then, we've seen those secular content trends play out. and we've capitalized at every turn. We've continued 2021's strong growth into this first quarter, posting revenues up 38%, adjusted EBITDA up 58% year over year, and raised our guidance for the fourth quarter in a row. These results were driven by the continued strong performance of our own sports properties, further return to full capacity live events, and our representation businesses' ability to fulfill the need for content from all legacy and newer platforms. We believe this is a direct result of the unique position Endeavor occupies on the supply side of the content ecosystem. We founded this company 27 years ago in response to the Internet's disruption of the content distribution model. Today, the content business is incredibly dynamic, driven by the expansion of distribution, which drives demand for sports and entertainment content. We've benefited from this dynamic environment as it places a greater premium on talent, brands, and IP. Whether that's legacy players like Warner Brothers Discovery and NBC Universal, who've expanded their distribution channels, or newer entrants like Apple, LocuChannel, and TikTok. Their value proposition is defined by the content they put on their services. And as you've heard me say before, this presents a tremendous opportunity for us as we're distribution agnostic. As both distribution and the definition of content continues to expand beyond television and films to newer lanes like podcasts and digital, it inures to our benefit because of the diversity and global scale of our portfolio. Whether that's through our ownership of sports properties like UFC and PBR, a representation of more than 7,000 clients, our role as a supplier in the expanding sports betting ecosystem for our portfolio of more than 1,700 annual live events and experiences. On the event side, we've seen outside demand globally. UFC sold out every pay-per-view event last year and throughout the first quarter. Freeze LA hosted its largest art fair to date. The Miami Open recorded its greatest attendance in its history. Super Bowl 56 became On Location's single largest hospitality event of all time. And the Madrid Open, which we recently acquired, attracted more than 200,000 fans over the 10 days in April and May. We're also responding to the demand for greater fan engagement and compliments to live events by way of our sports data business, IMG Arena, which similarly benefits from being on the supply side of the sports betting value chain. Building on its strong roots in basketball, golf, tennis, hockey, and MMA, IMG Arena is now expanding into soccer, adding 19 European leagues to its portfolio in the first quarter. In addition to the value of having this large and diverse portfolio, we benefit from our longstanding relationships with buyers, which are reinforced by the volume and variety of our businesses. For example, if you look at Warner Brothers Discovery, A William Morris client was the lead actor in the record-breaking Batman. William Morris was responsible for the popular HBO Max show Euphoria and Laker series Winning Time. All Endeavor content was the studio behind HBO's Tokyo Vice. Through IMG, we also produced ancillary sports programming for Discovery, and we've done a series of sports rights deals with them. ranging from the U.S. Open, European Cycling, and most recently for Discovery Plus to become the new home of the UFC and the Netherlands. With that, I'll leave you with our view on the state of the premium content business. For the past few weeks, there's been a lot of conversation around the future of content following Netflix subscriber performance this quarter. From where Endeavor sits on the supply side of the content ecosystem, we simply do not see content spend reducing. 2022's content spend is set to be the highest on record, with Netflix itself pointing to an increase in spending to $20 billion with its eye towards higher quality programming. We also have the visibility into content spend at least through 2023 in that many productions and orders are locked in. At the end of the day, for platforms to gain and maintain customers, they have to spend on premium content. Original feature films, docuseries, scripted, non-scripted television all drive subscriber growth, as they have for Netflix for decades, and are currently doing for the likes of Disney+, Paramount+, Roku, HBO Max, and Peacock, which have recently reported adding tens of millions of subscribers. Given where we sit on the supply side of that content, you can think of us as the ultimate proxy for content growth. Beyond premium content, We feel great about where we sit relative to the secular tailwind in all of our businesses. Bottom line is that we had a great performance this quarter. We've continued to beat and raise guidance for the past four quarters, and we're well positioned for strong long-term growth. With that, I'll turn it over to Jason.