Welcome to Liberty Media and MotoGP Investor Call. During the prepared remarks, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press star one on your telephone. As a reminder, this conference will be recorded April 1st. I would like to turn the call over to Shane Kleinstein, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning. Thank you for joining. Before we begin, we'd like to remind everyone that this call includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about the proposed acquisition by Liberty Media Corporation of Dorna Sports and its MotoGP business, the realization of expected synergies and benefits from the proposed transaction, market potential, future financial prospects, future business strategies, and opportunities relating to Dorna and MotoGP, including promotion, marketing, and new commercial partners, including sponsors, content distribution, changes to MotoGP's race calendar, and other matters that are not historical facts.
These forward-looking statements involve many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements, including, without limitation, the satisfaction of the conditions for the proposed acquisition of Dorna Sports, our ability to realize the expected benefits of this transaction, market conditions, and continued access to capital on terms acceptable to Liberty Media. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this call, and Liberty Media expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in Liberty Media's expectations with regard thereto, or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
Please refer to the publicly filed documents of Liberty Media, including the most recent Form 10-K, for additional information about Liberty Media and about the risks and uncertainties related to Liberty Media's business, which may affect the statements made on this call. Please also note that we have a presentation posted on our website. Today, we'll do a high-level review of the slides and those additional information provided in the appendix. Then we'll open the call up for questions from analysts and investors.
Please note we will not be taking any questions from the press. Speaking on today's call, we have Greg Maffei, Liberty's President and CEO; Carmelo Ezpeleta, Dorna CEO; and members of Dorna management will be available for Q&A, including Enrique Aldama, the Chief Operating and Financial Officer; Dan Rossomondo, Chief Commercial Officer; and Carlos Ezpeleta, Chief Sporting Officer. Now I'll turn the call over to Greg.
Buenos días. Thank you for joining us. I'm going to ask you to start on slide 5. We are thrilled to announce this agreement to acquire Dorna, the commercial rights holder of MotoGP. MotoGP is the pinnacle of motorcycle racing with a 75-year history, and this is a unique opportunity to acquire a global league-level asset, one with a highly attractive financial profile and strong free cash flow with over 80% of revenue contracted.
MotoGP is thrilling racing, which demonstrates high-speed excitement and competition. These riders are amazing athletes, and the grittiness of the sport and the riders leads to a visceral relationship with its fans. There is a strong heritage in this fandom, and there we believe also a large opportunity to expand to a wider audience and to share the sport and stories more broadly. MotoGP is both aspirational and relatable. Two-wheel transportation is a massive global market.
There is a very strong partnership today between the commercial rights holder, the teams, and the regulatory bodies, which we admire and advocate for. We believe this allows for regulation that enhances competition. For example, during the 2023 season, there were 15 riders on the podium. We look forward to partnering with a very high-quality management team here: Carlos, Carmelo, Dan, and Enrique.
Carmelo has over 30 years' experience with MotoGP and a tenured talent with a history in motorsport and the broader media and entertainment. Turning now to Slide 6. This references what we showed investors back in November. We love scaled businesses with attractive premium IP. There are scarce assets in the world like this, but they reflect strong underlying demand trends. Like this one, the opportunity for global expansion is extremely exciting. When your fans are your customers, we believe this creates the stickiest commercial relationships.
Opportunities like this are difficult to find and incredibly attractive. MotoGP is a perfect fit for Liberty Media. As I mentioned, MotoGP is the premium opportunity in motorcycle racing, which brings the best talent in the world combined with the best motorcycle machinery. And as I said also, it's a league-level asset, which means there are centralized commercial rights, which generates control over the ecosystem and the potential for excellent profitability.
We hope to leverage Liberty's experience with F1, the Braves, and what's evolving in the media landscape to accelerate the growth of MotoGP. MotoGP, I'd note, also has an existing partnership with Quint, and we see an opportunity to improve the suite of premium products that are offered. Turning now to slide 7. Consumer spend on high-quality live entertainment is fueling the tailwinds in live sports and the entertainment market.
We've seen growth in in-person attendance, media rights, and sponsorship. The share of wallet on sports and experiences has rebounded and grown further post-COVID, and sports are hugely valuable for broadcasters, providing rare content to aggregate a mass audience on a predictable basis. Also, the number and type of broadcasters bidding on sports rights has grown, and we see increasing demand and competition among them.
Finally, we see growing audience and fandom, which has grown new sponsorship interest and opportunities. We expect this growth trajectory to continue, especially in sports with a global presence like MotoGP. So turning now to slide 8. I'm just going to spend a minute reviewing the transaction. The entity being acquired is Dorna Sports, the exclusive commercial rights holder to the MotoGP World Championship and other motorcycle series. The transaction value is 100% of Dorna at EUR 4.2 billion, and the equity value is EUR 3.5 billion.
The equity consideration is expected to be paid at 65% in cash and 21% in Quint entity equity, and management will retain 14% equity interest. Some MotoGP management is rolling 100% of their equity. Liberty does have an option to deliver additional cash in lieu of Quint equity and settle our option, and we could bring in third-party equity to accomplish this. On cash consideration, we expect to lever MotoGP up to 5.5x net leverage. The remainder will be funded with a mix of cash and debt from F1 and the Formula One Group. We will maintain flexibility on mix based on market conditions, and we assume a year-end and MotoGP year-end close and MotoGP will be leveraged, as I said, 5.5x with expected F1 leverage of 3.5x-4x.
We have seen strong EBITDA and free cash flow growth at MotoGP and F1, and we expect that will lead to organic deleveraging. Liberty is likely to hedge the FX exposure between this announcement and the close. MotoGP will be attributed to the Formula One Group tracking stock. With the strong business fundamentals, significant growth upside, and underlying free cash flow generation of MotoGP, we are confident this will be accretive to the Formula One Group. As I mentioned, we expect to close by year-end. We will quickly engage with regulators to secure the necessary approvals. There is a large and growing market for audiovisual entertainment well beyond sports, and we are confident, therefore, in our ability to get this transaction done. A couple more notes.
MotoGP will continue as an independent company and will remain with its tenured management team continue to lead the business and run out of the headquarters in Madrid. With that, I will turn it over to Carmelo, the CEO of Dorna, who joined MotoGP, as I mentioned, in 1991 as the Director of Motorsport, assumed the role of CEO in 1994. He's incredibly respected in the MotoGP paddock and motorsport at large. Carmelo will provide a few more details about the sport and the business.
Good morning to everyone, and thank you, Greg Maffei, and all Liberty Media. We are incredibly happy to be announcing this partnership and look forward to this next step in the MotoGP evolution. Looking at slide 9, I want to start with some history of our business and sport. MotoGP is the first motorsport world championship. It began in 1949, and this year we will proudly celebrate 75 years of amazing competitive racing.
In 1992, Dorna took over the rights to MotoGP from the International Motorcycle Federation, the FIM. Since then, we have been working together for 30 years to develop the world's best motorcycle racing championship. We have extended our exclusive agreement with the FIM six times since 1992. Thank you, the FIM, for their work with the sport prior Dorna ownership and for their support of the Liberty acquisition.
We look forward to continuing to grow the sport together. MotoGP has successfully grown the calendar across the globe. We have expanded the calendar across five continents. Unfortunately, we are not able to travel to Argentina in 2024, but we look forward to returning next year. On track, we have 11 strong teams with two riders each. MotoGP riders are incredible athletes.
They are strong, skilled, and brave. This is a big attraction for our fans. We have five global manufacturers building motorbikes, especially to race in MotoGP. The bikes are built to regulations. We have been working on them together for more than 30 years. We have focuses on exciting racing, safety, road-relevant technology, and sustainability. Manufacturers want cutting-edge research and development and the premium brand value that MotoGP provides. These five leading factories, Aprilia, Ducati, Honda, KTM, and Yamaha, all have an official team.
Call it the factory team. The other six teams, called independent teams, are privately owned and lease bikes from the manufacturers. Teams can decide which manufacturers they want to lease bikes from. We have helped the manufacturers to support the independent teams with batches of CapEx for leases. This creates a healthy ecosystem and close competition. All teams have won a race in the past four seasons. MotoGP holds the top speed record for every circuit where we race, even with speeds faster than 220 mi an hour. The small gap between the riders and bikes shows the close competition. Last season, we had 15 riders on the podium and eight different winners from six teams.
The average time deciding a Grand Prix, a Sprint, or Grand Prix win at the first two events of 2024 is less than a second, and we have already eight riders from six teams on the podium this season. In 2023, the championship beat our records for fan attendance in a season. 3 million fans came to see MotoGP, and the French Grand Prix was the highest-attended Grand Prix ever, making it the biggest sporting event in the country last year. The sport has seen growth on social media and digital channels. In 2024, MotoGP has a digital audience of 140 million on social channels, including more than 50 million from MotoGP on social media. Our followers have gone from 30 million to 50 million in only a couple of years.
With over 100 broadcasters, MotoGP reaches nearly 500 million homes, and our VideoPass es directly to consumers, meaning MotoGP is available to everyone. The sport is also the top of the vital global industry. In many places, two wheels power society, giving billions of people access to mobility. Motorcyclists are also lifestyles and create a feeling of freedom.
Our position in the motorcycle industry is shown by our role relevance, from technology in innovation to safety advancements and new sustainable fuels. Our racing together philosophy also shows our commitment to sustainable development. Regulations now require fuels to be a minimum of 40% non-fossil origin, rising 100% in 2027. MotoGP research and progress will play a vital role as this progress reaches its peak. We have been working with our promoter partners to make the events more sustainable. We plan to increase our remote broadcasting to reduce our carbon footprint.
We are committed to making a global contribution to the motorsport community. Turning to slide 10. Looking at the 2024 calendar, you see that we have a large European presence, but we are a global sport. We have grown in the sport in neighboring markets like Southeast Asia, and now we race there for our important and growing fan bases in the region.
A lot of neighboring destinations on the calendar are places with high motorcycle interest and are very valuable for the manufacturers. We aim to create new races that have attractive economics and make great racing experiences. The success in Southeast Asia is a guide for us to grow the sport in South America, where motorcycles are also very important. The U.S. is another opportunity, with lots of history in the sport and where motorcycle riding is culturally important.
Liberty clearly has a lot of experience in the U.S. market that we will benefit from. We look at our growth markets in terms of all revenue. This includes not just adding more race locations, but improving media rights, growing sponsorship, and continuing to grow our fans. Our global presence is something we also focused on from the start. In terms of riders and representation, for more than two decades, Dorna has invested in accessibility and inclusion via the Road to MotoGP platform, creating young rider programs around the world. This year, we are launching the Women's World Championship, where 24 female riders from different countries will compete. A global sport must also create a place where global competitors drive, providing heroes and figures of interest for as many markets as possible. Going to slide 11.
MotoGP's healthy ecosystem is thanks to the agreement we have achieved between all the parties over many years. The best example is the Grand Prix Commission, which is representative of the FIM, the global regulatory body, MSMA, who provide technical input, and IRTA, who represent the teams. It is chaired by Dorna. The Commission is in charge of regulations. Importantly, over the past 30 years, all changes have been unanimously agreed. The technical rules are very important for the close competition on track while balancing innovation and entertainment. We first introduced concessions in 2013 to help everybody compete, and they have been updated since to make sure competition remains as close as possible.
We have created a strong agreement between us that allows the sport to focus on every detail, from our decision to use one tire supplier and a single electronic control unit to exploring new sporting formats to keep the race in entertainment. Our promoters, broadcasters, and sponsors are also fantastic supporters for the sport around the world. We work closely with the promoters to deliver the best on-site experience for our fans, helping us to continue to grow our fandom and attendance. Our broadcaster partners deliver a first-class production of the races and tell stories that take fans to the heart of the sport. We know we have the potential to continue telling the MotoGP story and demand interest from even more premium partners across our revenue streams.
Our relationship with all the partners in our ecosystem is a big benefit as we begin a new era and grow the sport. Turning to slide 12. Finally, a word about our fans. They are loyal, very engaged, and diverse. More than 80% of MotoGP fans watch more than 75% of races. Our fans come to a lot of races and are attracted to the on-track action. Our fastest-growing fans are female, and we are getting more and more younger fans. New fans engage differently, and we have done different things to keep them engaged. The Sprint was introduced in 2023 and has been very successful, with a bigger Saturday audience that creates a bigger audience for Sunday too. The Sprint also has great reviews from younger fans, who are even more committed to the airplane.
We have been able to use digital engagement to show more light on the sport, making documentaries and behind-the-scenes content for each platform. Increasing the visibility of the global sport is our biggest project today, from new broadcaster partners and digital collaboration to influencers to reach people we know will love the sport. There is no doubt about the quality of MotoGP.
We are extremely proud of what we have helped to create, and we are excited about working to show everyone, all 8 billion people on the earth, how good it is. We are excited about this new era for MotoGP and this new partnership with Liberty. We look forward to taking MotoGP to the next level and the level after that, until MotoGP means sport and entertainment to everyone. Now, I will turn back to Greg.
Thanks, Carlos. Carmelo, excuse me. Turning to slide 13, I want to echo Carmelo's comments on the incredible sport that he and his team have built, but also give you a few details about the very attractive financial model. MotoGP is blessed with long-term contracts across its revenue streams, which de-risk the model, and there's a diverse mix of revenues.
Beginning with the media rights, which are just over 40% of the revenue, the large partners include familiar and important broadcasters like Canal+ in France, Sky in Italy, DAZN in Spain, and TNT in the UK. MotoGP also has an internally developed direct-to-consumer product for the hardcore fan called VideoPass , which has growing revenue and interest. Turning now to race promotion, which is about 32% of revenue. The counterparties are a mix of private promoters and government support entities. MotoGP has 12 EU and nine flyaway races planned for 2024.
We believe 22 races is the right number, and we will shift the focus together to optimize the mix of global race locations. The commercial revenue stream also includes sponsorship and VIP hospitality, and that's about 17% of total revenue. The category has a lot of upside over indexing to endemic sponsors, and there are vacant industry verticals like betting and CPG. There's a limited digital inventory today, but that will expand. We think there's also the opportunity to improve the consistency and appeal of VIP hospitality, including leveraging Quint's capabilities. Let me point you now to slide 14. MotoGP has incredible cash flow, and the business has also incredible margins, a 37% EBITDA margin in 2023. Because the team fees are fixed, MotoGP recognizes a high incremental flow-through to cash flow of revenue.
This minimal capital intensity of the business also creates a high conversion to unlevered, free cash flow. CapEx was only about 1% of revenue, and looking at EBITDA, less CapEx is historically over a 97% conversion. MotoGP is subject to a 25% Spanish income tax rate. Let me turn you now to slide 15. We look forward to bringing Liberty's experience with global sports and entertainment properties to help accelerate the growth at MotoGP.
This is an unbelievably exciting sport, an unbelievably well-run and exciting product with an unbelievably passionate fan base. Our goal is to expand that sport to newer audiences, especially in Asia and the U.S., and use the opportunity to amplify the marketing efforts with improved storytelling about the riders and the sport. A couple of things to note over MotoGP's history. It's hosted races in 30 different countries and had winners from 30 different nationalities.
There are some amazing fun facts about this sport. Let me give you one. The Leaning Tower of Pisa leans at about 4 degrees. The average human can lean forward about 17 degrees before falling over. But these riders are amazing athletes with amazing machines, and they can get a max lean angle achieved without crashing of 68 degrees. We hope to broaden the reach of this sport and drive growth from the existing commercial partners and entice new ones. We hope to leverage Liberty's relationships and the lessons learned on the commercial side of F1.
Let's call it pattern recognition. And we hope to collaborate with other media portfolio companies like Quint to improve the fan experience. We are excited about this interest. We are excited to have the chance to work with Carmelo. Liberty will be a long-term owner, and we aim to bring sustainable growth under our ownership. With that, operator, I'd like to open the line for questions.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question is from Stephen Laszczyk with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.
Congrats on getting the deal done. Two questions, if I could. First, Greg, Carmelo, you talked a lot about the opportunity to grow the fan base at MotoGP. Greg, you guys have obviously done a great job at that at F1, especially in some of the under-penetrated markets. I'm curious if you could talk a little bit more about that opportunity at MotoGP, your long-term vision for broadening out the fan base, and some of the plans you think you can put in place out of the gate here once you bring MotoGP under your umbrella. And then, Greg, on media rights, I'm curious where you see the most opportunity to enhance the media rights portfolio at MotoGP and how you bring to bear both the possibility of negotiating F1 and MotoGP together to enhance those markets. Thank you.
Well, I'm going to take the second one first, if it's okay. The one thing we will not be doing is negotiating MotoGP and Formula One together, both because of the regulatory issues and because of the structure of our deal with our F1 partners and teams. So that's probably a nonstarter. I would like to think that Liberty has insights into how the media landscape is evolving and how to make the product appealing to media partners outside the traditional bases of Italy and Spain and France and to help grow in those other markets. I think we have some insights on that. As far as growing the fan base, I'd point to a lot of things, and I'll let either Carmelo or Carlos add to it as well.
We obviously had success with Netflix, but we had success opening up F1 in many other ways, whether it be social media, whether it be bringing drivers to race fans on Twitch, to fan experience zones, to fan zones, really changing the perspective on how the sport is done. This is an amazing sport, and its passionate fan base knows how exciting it is. But our goal is to expose that in some ways to a broader world in the way that some way we've done with F1. So, Carmelo, do you want to touch on this, or do you want to Carlos, do you want to?
Yeah. Thank you, Greg. So we're hugely proud of the sport we have, and we think that there could be no one better than Liberty to help us exploit that visibility and improve our fan engagement and getting more people to be aware about the sport outside of our main markets. And one thing that they've done amazingly well is making the sport culturally resonate and transcend the sport itself.
And we think that a lot of the values that we have with MotoGP will transcend very well into a younger and a more diverse fan base across the globe. Another thing that we think Liberty will be great at is helping us tell those stories outside of the racing. And both of these combined, we think, is going to create a great value for us outside our more endemic markets.
Great. Thanks for the question. Next one, operator, please.
Our next question is from Ben Swinburne with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.
Thank you. Good morning. Congrats on getting the deal done. Greg, you mentioned that team payments are fixed. And obviously, we're all familiar with the F1 team payment sort of mechanisms. Is there anything you can tell us more, maybe either you or Carmelo, about how the team payments work, if they're fixed, presumably not forever, sort of what the process there is, and any way to kind of put this in context with what we've watched with the Concorde Agreement kind of back and forth over the years? And then a couple just on the deal mechanics. Could you just review the funding again?
I think you said MotoGP will be raising new debt, and then I couldn't tell if you were talking about F1 Group leverage or F1 OpCo leverage and whether you're using just FWON cash versus OpCo cash. I just wanted to check, when this deal is closed, FWON shareholders will own, is it 86% of MotoGP? Just want to make sure I got the specifics right. Thanks.
Let's work backwards. Again, maybe thanks for the question, Ben. Maybe it's my mentality. The easy one is yes. We will own 86%, and the management team will own 14%. So that's the easy one. On how the leverage works, we expect to raise incremental debt at the MotoGP level, and the overall FWON leverage, we expect between 3.5-4x at the OpCo level. Yeah. Ben Oren, do you want to comment at all anymore on the capital raise?
I mean, just to echo what you said, Greg, so we expect 3.5x-4x on or shortly after closing at the F1 OpCo level. We do reserve the ability, given market conditions may change, to issue debt at the parent level as well, still attributed to the FWONK tracker. Dorna has cash, has debt. Debt, we take leverage to 5.5x or lower. We expect cash to essentially quickly de-lever both of these entities after close.
Great. On the question of team payments, just so everyone on the call knows, we have basically a relationship in F1 where we share in the revenues and costs with the teams, and we have a series of splits depending on where we come in so that it's a much more variable relationship. It's a much more fixed payment relationship at the MotoGP level, and I'll let Carlos comment a little more on that.
Yes. Thank you, Greg. So we have a fixed model with the teams. It works similar to F1, in which we have five-year contracts, five-year agreements with them, which are currently lasting until 2026 inclusive, and which we've renewed six times already in Dorna's time. They are dependent only on the number of races, basically, and there's both event payments and championship payments for the whole season.
We think that given the new partnership, the teams will see added value over and above the regular increases. One thing that we've done very well has been to control the costs of racing so that the sustainability of the paddock by allowing the private teams to lease bikes at a very economical cost and Dorna covering a big percentage of their yearly operating fees through the payments, both for the manufacturers and for the teams. So we think that this is a very solid model, and we're very optimistic about the renewal for 2027.
Thanks so much. Great.
Thank you, Ben. Next question, operator.
Our next question is from Vijay Jayant with Evercore ISI. Please proceed.
Good morning. Congratulations on the transaction. Greg, I'm assuming MotoGP is not an ATB right away, and you'll probably have a five-year wait on that. Second, I just want to understand on the team payments one more time. This fixed payment is a fixed dollar amount, not a ratio. I just want to confirm that. Thank you.
So I'll comment by not commenting on ATB because I think we would certainly view this as a line extension. But I'll let Albert, do you want to add anything?
Nope. That's correct. This ought to be a business expansion.
So therefore, qualifying probably is a good ATB, though we clearly have no plan or intent to do anything with the business today other than acquire it successfully as quickly as possible and get access to this great management team into F1. And on the fixed payment, do you want to add a little more color, Carlos?
Yes. The question is yes. It's a fixed cost. It's a fixed number for the teams, and it's only dependent on the number of events, not on revenue generated by Dorna or anything of that sort.
It's probably worth noting, Carlos or Enrique, maybe you want to touch on this. The entry cost to be a team, given the structure, is much different and much lower than the F1 entry cost to become a team owner, capital required, money required. I don't know if you want to add on that.
Yes. So we think, as we explained previously, currently, we have 22 riders with 11 teams. That's similar to F1 with one more team with two riders. We have six independent teams, which are privately owned, and we have five manufacturers, which are Aprilia, Honda, KTM, Ducati, and Yamaha. Those manufacturers have teams for themselves and develop their own machinery. They also lease bikes to the independent teams.
What we have provided is a very controlled cost environment, so the independent teams are more or less running at an operational cost of around EUR 50 million per season, of which Dorna, together with IRTA to the championship, is covering more or less 50% of that, composed of annual payments and event payments, which are agreed and are not variable. That means that we are covering more or less 50% of their costs.
I don't know if you talked also about the FIM, the payments that we make to the FIM. The payments that we make to the FIM, yes, they are fixed on a yearly basis and are paid every year.
Got it.
Thank you. So that helps, Vijay. Great. Next question, please.
Our next question is from Brian Kraft with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.
Hi. Good morning. I had a few, if I could. Greg, just maybe looking at it at a real high level, how much of the growth opportunity that you see ahead for the business is due to under-monetization versus growing the sport, and is one of those opportunities larger than the other over the next, say, 3-5 years? And then next, I just wanted to ask you about the you mentioned the 25% Spanish tax rate.
What's your ability to tax efficiently upstream cash from MotoGP to the U.S. used for share repurchases or other parent-level activities? And then the last one I had is, are there any meaningful one-time OpEx or CapEx investments that you plan to make early on, say, in 2025, in order to reposition the business in any way or make any changes to pursue growth opportunities? Thank you.
So I'll touch on the last one. Then Albert, do you want to say anything about the CapEx or the tax issue? On the CapEx, there is no planned CapEx. We are not announcing a Vegas new paddock. It is worth noting, these cannot be on street circuits, right? So we're not going to have the same kind of experience. We're going to have a different profile working with our promoter partners and potential partners, but there's no big planned CapEx. Albert, do you want to touch on the tax rate and upstreaming?
Sure. It's one where I don't think there's going to be any huge impediments to upstreaming cash to the extent we want to do so.
Thanks, Albert. So under-monetization versus growing the sport, I think that's kind of a false dichotomy to some degree, Brian. I think they go hand in hand. What we really saw at F1 was, as we grew the fan base, the monetization became easier because your partners, whether they be broadcast partners, promoter partners, or sponsor partners, and whether they're looking mostly at branding or activation and more and more looking for activation, it's all part and parcel.
As that excitement grows, as that audience grows, as that demand grows, everything kind of flows together, and there is a positive flywheel. And that's certainly what we felt in Formula One. Those all came together, and I think, like to believe, that's the potential here. This is an unbelievable product. We are not planning to change the sport. This is a great sport with a great fan base that has unbelievable competition and unbelievable excitement. Our hope and goal is to open that up to a broader audience and open up to a broader set of commercial partners of all flavors, and I think those go hand in hand.
Thank you. That's very helpful, Greg. Maybe just one follow-up on the question I had about any one-time investments. I was asking about OpEx as well as CapEx, so I think you addressed the CapEx side. But is there anything from an OpEx perspective? I think, after the F1 deal, I think you had increased G&A kind of upfront. Is there anything like that that we should be thinking about as we forecast next year?
We certainly do not have a plan which has us in any way decreasing or changing the margin structure. So I think this will I think this definitely will pay for itself. I don't know, Carmelo, if you had anything about increasing OpEx. I don't think there's a plan. No. Not any plan at all.
Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Congrats on the deal.
Thanks, Brian. Thanks, Brian, brother.
Our next question is from David Karnovsky with JPMorgan Chase. Please proceed.
All right. Thanks for the question. Greg, when we look back at the Liberty's history with F1, there were structural adjustments you made with an eye toward improving the on-track product, health of the ecosystem, things like a budget cap or regulations. In that context, how do you think investors should view MotoGP as an organization today? From your prepared remarks or remarks just previously, it sounds like you're a lot more satisfied with the starting point. And then I wanted to zero in on the growth opportunity in the United States. Maybe you could just speak to MotoGP's position or history here and what would be the playbook, potentially, for expansion. Thanks.
So taking the first point, I'm not going to be critical of where F1 was, but I do think that MotoGP is much further along, frankly, in some cases, perhaps having watched what's gone at F1 and embraced much of it already. But I'm not sure that it's taken hold. So in some ways, I think it is much further along, but I think there's still the opportunity to see the benefit of those changes and the benefit of the improvements that they've made over the last several years. And I'd like to think some improvements we can make together over the next few years will continue to drive that and show opportunity.
So I don't think there's as much change as will come as there was at F1, but I still think there's plenty of the same upside that F1 had. As far as interest in the Americas, maybe I'll let Carlos touch on that a little bit.
Thank you. Well, I think that the U.S., for us, provides a lot of potential and significant opportunity. It's a country where it might not be known to a lot of us, but we have seven U.S. champions historically in the Premier Class, which is more than we've had from Spain, for example. So it's a country where there's a lot of past success for MotoGP, a lot of heritage, and we look to build that up in the future.
We already have interest for more events there in the future, and we think that our sport is very well suited to the American audience. It's high intensity. It's short race times. It's very easy to understand for new audiences. So we think that it's a perfect match, and we have things happening already. We've added an American team to the Premier Class this year with Trackhouse Racing, looking to be very successful with a great personality. So we're definitely looking forward to this.
And one thing that I would add is that the format of our sport is tailor-made for the American audience. At its longest on the weekend, it's a 45-minute race, with the sprint on Saturday being 25 minutes. So if you think about content today and how it's consumed, we have the ideal sport for young adults, both male and female. And I would say the technology that we bring to bear, over 160 cameras on the weekend, we show off a product that is just special. And I think once Americans as we do a better job of marketing it in America, it'll gain resonance, and I think they will really love the sport.
Great. Thank you. Next question, please.
Our next question is from Jeff Wlodarczak with Pivotal Research Group. Please proceed.
Hey, guys. I add my congrats on this deal. Can you provide more color? I don't think you've done this yet. What gives you confidence you can get this deal by regulators? And then what are the regulatory milestones we should be looking for in successful deal closure?
First, Jeff, thanks. We are very confident we will get this with regulators because we believe there is a broad market for sports and entertainment properties, of which both Formula One and MotoGP are only a small subset, and that the market has continued to change from the time when this was previously reviewed in a major way. We are going to not treat these as a bundle or try and bring them together, the market.
These are both separate properties. And as I mentioned, the things we bring to the table here are not in any way leveraging the two. I think it's pattern recognition and leveraging some of the learnings we've had from F1 and some of the opportunity we see to expose MotoGP, not in any way to leverage the two. So I think we're very confident in the regulatory side. I'll let Renee Wilm, our Chief Legal Officer, as well as other titles - but we'll give her that one for the moment - comment further.
Thanks, Greg. So Jeff, I would just add to what Greg already mentioned that the CVC decision, which is almost 20 years old, was never really followed up on in terms of any kind of an in-depth investigation or appeal process. They chose to just quickly close and move on. So I think when you factor in that we are going to engage very quickly with the regulators, making all the points that Greg just very clearly articulated, and also just noting the change in the media landscape over the last 20 years, we're pretty confident we can get this done quickly and get the transaction cleared. With regard to your second question around milestones, we will be filing with the EU.
We'll also be filing with the UK, Brazil, and Australia for antitrust clearance. Then secondarily, we'll be making FDI filings with Spain and Italy. We think those should be done pretty quickly and that the antitrust clearance should be obtained by the end of the year so we could have a Q4 closing.
Thank you. I'd add one more thanks, Renee. I'd add one more thing, Jeff, which was, and I remember speaking to the CVC management. They were under a tight timeframe to get a deal done on buying F1. So they did not have the time to go and work through the regulatory process. And they were a PE firm which had a big gain in one product, and they were moving on to buy the other when they had a contract they had to execute on. We're in a very different position.
We are absolutely aligned as a group into a changed market. We're not under the same sort of time pressures. We believe that the regulatory process will move smoothly and quickly, but it'll take the time they need, and this deal will get done.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question.
Our next question is from Barton Crockett with Rosenblatt Securities. Please proceed.
Hi. Thanks for taking the question. I was interested in the growth trajectory of MotoGP. I mean, the revenue growth in 2023 over 2022 was relatively muted at 2%, as you've reported, 15% growth in EBITDA. You've given us three years, but that's kind of somewhat skewed, potentially, by kind of pandemic. We don't have really kind of a longer-term visibility. I was wondering if you could give us a sense of just over what you see as kind of the core kind of growth rate for this business as you're getting it, and presumably, you think it accelerates. Just how quickly do you think it can accelerate, and what would be the biggest kind of drivers of that?
I'm happy. Enrique, do you want to comment on the growth on the historical? And then, Marty, maybe I'll let you comment on where you think we're going.
Well, basically, historically, what we see always is that the last 3 years of the agreements, okay, that we make with the teams, as Carlos mentioned, are normally 5 years. So the next period finishes in 2026. Normally, in the last 3 years, the percentage of EBITDA over total income grows because, mainly, most of our costs are fixed.
If we are able to develop more things from an income point of view, that will make us grow even higher, no? This is something important because the last two years that we have had information that is 2022 and 2023, okay, those are the two first of the new agreements. So with the new escalators that we have in the agreements, it will permit us even to grow further in the following three years.
Marty, do you want to comment just on we're not making any projections or forward statements, as you would know, gang, but in general, where we see growth in this business?
Yeah. I had a couple of things to add. Barton, when you look at this business over 20 years, they've compounded EBITDA at around a 10% rate, going back multiple decades. So it's a very strong structural grower, driven by all these contracted revenues that we've outlined in the presentation previously. Looking forward, we expect there to be strong growth, really, across all buckets. But you think about, in the promoter bucket, shifting to some higher-fee-paying geographies, meaning there's meaningful upside in sponsorship, expanding the base from what's today mostly a core endemic set of sponsors. And then VIP hospitality is a pretty small business inside Dorna today. We think there's real upside there, and we look forward to working with Quinn in more detail.
Okay. Thank you for that. And just one quick follow-on, just a detail. Your promotion revenues, you're working through promoters. You're not selling direct like F1 is doing in Vegas. Is that correct?
Yeah. That's correct. This is very similar to the structure. I think it's also interesting that some of the things that they're working on to learn more and more about their customer base, more and more direct-to-customer knowledge, is a similar opportunity and challenge and something they're working through. So it's another case of where pattern recognition and the things that we are doing at F1 can be helpful in thinking through their customer set. Next question, please.
Our next question is from Jason Bazinet with Citi. Please proceed.
I just had a quick question. The parallels to F1 are sort of obvious to your pattern recognition comments, Greg. I was just wondering if you could just highlight two or three things that you think are different about MotoGP relative to F1.
Sure, Jason. Thank you. I think we've touched on a couple of them. First of all, they're riders, not drivers. And I've had to remember that. It's all through my discussion. Secondly, I think we touched on a couple already, and I'm happy to reiterate and go through a few more. One is the nature of the relationship with the teams is much more of a fixed payment basis and much more low-cost for the teams.
They have less capital involved, and they're less very, very important, but they're less taking risk on their side and our side. We're taking the risk on the upside of the business and the potential at MotoGP. So that's different. Talked about some of the differences around the level of competition to date. This sport has had, I think I said, 15 people on the podium in 2023. That's much higher than we had in Formula One.
In general, the sponsors have not been, historically, the same level of breadth of CPG names and high-quality names that we've been able to achieve in Formula One. That's clearly an opportunity. Well, the fan base is certainly varied. In general, the cost per and revenue per customer is much lower. So in some cases, it's not the same amount of money that is being spent per head and per caps at a race. Those are some of the biggest differences, I would point out, between the two businesses. Anything else, Carlos, you think you'd add?
Yeah. Well, as we explained from the sporting side, there's the difference in structure with agreement with the teams. We come from a very cost-controlled structure in MotoGP, which has allowed for a huge sustainability in the paddock over the last decade and a huge demand of new teams wanting to enter the sport. On the sporting side, we think that the riders are a huge part of the sport. They make a big difference on track and the results. There's also no pit stops, and the races are much shorter. We have a similar number of teams. We have 11 teams.
And one of the things that is majorly different from the sport is the tracks themselves. We do race at five of the same circuits that F1 races at. But because of the speeds and the safety, which are paramount for the championship, we cannot race in street circuits. We need a lot of runoff area. So that's one of the big differences in both sports. On the business side, I think it's very similar, as you touched on. We have three major buckets, which are promoters, media, and sponsorship.
Hospitality is one that we clearly see a lot of potential in going forward. The rest is majorly similar in both championships.
Very helpful. Thank you.
Thanks, Jason. Next question, please.
Our final question is from Matthew Harrigan with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed.
Thank you. I have two questions. First, I admittedly just have a casual knowledge of MotoGP as a sport, but you've got some new regs coming in 2027. I don't know whether that's intended to enhance competition. I know you don't have a Max Verstappen issue, especially as a lot of the races are determined by the riders as much as the machines. You don't have the engineering advantage that Red Bull has. But what exactly is the intent of the change in the regs? And then do you have very much. In the way of video games already, and it seems like you could have some fairly hair-raising possibilities for AR over a period of time as well. Thank you.
So Carlos will touch on the 2027 regs, and then Dan will touch on the video games.
So the 2027 regulations is a topic that we're immensely proud of, and I think it's a great testimony of the great environment and ecosystem that we have in MotoGP and how all the stakeholders, the FIM, the manufacturers, the teams, and Dorna, we are all in the same direction, on the same page. While the sport is at a great moment right now and we have fierce competition, as Greg mentioned before, with a lot of different winners and different teams having success, we want to take the opportunity of 2027 to address and further improve a lot of the most important factors of the sport.
Of course, sustainability is one of those. Entertainment is always very important to us, and safety. Those are the three major areas which we're working around, and that will include touching on the power of the engines, so possibly the size and displacement of the engines, reducing aerodynamics while keeping the machinery exotic and road-relevant, as well as touching on the ride-height devices and sustainability, so the fuel, which we've already announced will be 100% sustainable, and how much fuel they're able to use.
So we think that all of these factors combined are going to make for probably a big change in 2027, bigger than the ones that we've had in the past renovations of the agreements with the teams and the manufacturers, but one that's definitely in for the positive. So more sustainability, more safety, more entertainment, more overtakes. So hugely proud of that.
Yeah. Hi, Matthew. In terms of the video game and the gaming space in general, we do have a video game that actually had its highest scores ever received last year by the gaming community, which is great. But we're also using gaming as a way to continue to interact one-on-one with fans and gain more of a direct relationship with them. So we use our casual games online and our predictor games to try to figure out what our fans want and obviously having them register and sign up so we can market to them in the future. In terms of AR and VR, this is a very forward-thinking and innovative sport.
The technology that our manufacturers and teams bring to the weekend is really hard to replicate. So we have to produce a sport that mirrors that, and we are constantly talking to people in the VR and the AR space on how to enhance the consumer's viewing of the sport. And we're also trying to figure out how we can get really cool and sort of futuristic simulators so that we can have a fan base that interacts with our sport out of the circuits as well.
Great. Great. Congratulations on the deal.
Thank you, Matthew. Thank you to the listening audience. It's been a pleasure. We're very much looking forward to working with the MotoGP team. Adios to you here from Madrid.
Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.