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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   1881 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 7, 2023

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I don't understand the economics behind UFC fights. Why would anyone pay money for a PPV? The matches are very short, way shorter than for other sports. Short enough to embedded in a gif or other media and share on twitter/youtube/facebook, without having to worry about it being taken down or bandwidth issues. You cannot do that with a basketball game. There is tons of filler for what is otherwise minutes of fighting.

Weaker guess: The parasocial relationship is easier to attach to the individual fighter/is stronger than the organizational team. The individual fighter has a sole ethnicity and nationality, which makes tribal rallying easier.

Stronger guess: For a variety of reasons (not saying they are good, carefully thought reasons) casual and addicted gamblers are more confidant in individual fighters to not throw matches or prearrange results or be screwed by officiating- the PPV cost is insignificant compared to the cash they have bet, legally or illegally.

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