One Championship to relocate global production hub from Singapore to Bangkok
The mixed martial arts organisation’s global corporate headquarters will remain in Singapore
[SINGAPORE] One Championship announced on Monday (Jun 30) that it will relocate its global production hub from Singapore to Bangkok, with the move aiming to “centralise production” and better support the company’s expanding content operations.
The mixed martial arts organisation – which was founded 14 years ago in 2011 and counts Temasek Holdings and Sequoia Holdings among its institutional investors – said it will continue to maintain its global corporate headquarters in Singapore.
One Championship’s chairman and chief executive Chatri Sityodtong said that Thailand has played a key role in the company’s global production efforts over the past two-and-a-half years.
“As we scale our operations, this move allows us to centralise production and improve coordination, while continuing to grow our event and content output,” he added.
Sityodtong said the move to make Bangkok the primary production base for global content delivery is “a step forward in our evolution as a global sports media property”.
“We remain committed to Singapore while reallocating resources to where it makes the most operational sense,” he said.
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The statement on Monday said that Bangkok has “steadily grown in operational importance” for One Championship, with the weekly One Friday Fights event taking place at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in the Thai capital. These shows are broadcast to some 195 countries during Asia prime-time hours.
A recent Nielsen study estimated that One Championship generates US$470 million annually in economic value for Thailand.
“Given the scale and consistency of these events, consolidating production in Thailand is a logical next step operationally,” the statement said.
“The company has also aggressively adopted artificial intelligence-powered tools for its global content engine across all platforms, boosting productivity and efficiency while streamlining operations.” The statement did not say how many employees, if any, would be impacted by the relocation of the global production hub to Bangkok.
When approached for comments, One Championship’s co-founder and group president Teh Hua Fung told The Business Times that the relocation is an ongoing process. The plan in the near term is to hire an additional 50 people in Thailand, of which 20 have already been recruited.
“Singapore is still the country with the most staff today, and also remains our global corporate headquarters,” said Teh, adding that Singapore is home to the company’s senior leadership, investor relations and strategic planning.
Last October, it was reported that One Championship laid off a few dozen employees as part of a cost-cutting strategy to bring the company to profitability.
In an internal e-mail sent to staff on Oct 16, Sityodtong wrote that the company was “on the verge” of profitability on the back of “record revenues and cost efficiencies”, alongside strong viewership numbers.
The company has continued to achieve “new highs” in its key markets, especially across Asia, he said then.
Growing revenues
One Championship re-domiciled to the Cayman Islands in 2022 as part of its long-term capital planning and corporate structuring.
Based on latest available figures provided to BT on Monday, the company’s annual revenues over the last five financial years have shown a steady increase.
Revenue for FY2020 stood at US$57 million, and this went up to US$68 million (FY2021), US$84 million (FY2022) and US$128 million (FY2023). The expected revenue for FY2024 is US$143 million.
“Our revenue has been growing steadily year on year and will be approaching US$200 million this year,” said Teh.
Apart from the One Friday Fights in Bangkok, One Championship continues to stage events in other parts of the world. Earlier this year, there was a major show in the Qatari city of Lusail in February, as well as in the Japanese city of Saitama in March.
Its website stated that the next two events outside of Thailand will take place in Tokyo in November, and in the US state of Colorado in June 2026. The latter event was originally scheduled to take place this August, but it was moved to next June after the advertised main event and several other world championship bouts could not take place as scheduled.
The last time One Championship held a live event in Singapore was the One Fight Night show in September 2023 at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang.
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