How Did Eddie Hearn Make His Money?

If you’re a boxing fan, you have certainly heard of Eddie Hearn. The boxing promoter has a big personality that makes him almost as entertaining as the matches he arranges.

If you’re a fan, you might have wondered how Eddie Hearn makes money and how much he has accumulated during his career.

Perhaps not surprisingly, he’s the wealthiest boxing promoter in the UK. He might even have plans that will push his net worth much higher by expanding Matchroom Sport, the company his father started.

Who Is Eddie Hearn?

Eddie Hearn is a sports promoter who has primarily worked with boxers, including several world champions.

Eddie started his work as a promoter immediately after leaving school. His father, Barry Hearn, had started the company Matchroom Sport, but Eddie began representing golfers for a different company. He soon joined Matchroom to promote online poker events.

Working in the online poker industry led him to meet Audley Harrison, a heavyweight boxer who had left the ring after experiencing declines in his career.

Eddie worked behind the scenes to arrange a boxing match between Harrison and David Haye, a heavyweight fighter who held the World Boxing Association (WBA) title at the time. Haye won the fight by a wide margin, but the event signaled new opportunities for Matchroom Sport.

Other boxing champions Hearn has promoted include Anthony Joshua, Katie Taylor, and Gennady Golovkin.

Hearn continued finding ways for Matchroom Sport to grow. In addition to promoting boxers, he started making exclusive deals with media companies, including broadcast and streaming outlets.

He has also promoted unique events, such as the fight between two YouTube personalities, Logan Paul and KSI. The two later decided to fight twice so they could air live coverage in different time zones. The events attracted some negative attention because Matchroom Boxing promoted them as professional boxing events even though the fighters had no professional experience.

Major events promoted by Eddie Hearn include Andy Ruiz Jr. vs. Anthony Joshua II in Saudi Arabia and Canelo Alvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders in Arlington, Texas. The Alvarez vs. Saunders fight took place in front of more than 73,125 spectators, making it the U.S.’s most-attended indoor fighting event.

How Did Eddie Hearn Make His Money?

Eddie Hearn has made most of his money as a sports promoter. The bulk of his work has focused on promoting boxing events, although he has also promoted online poker and other sports.

It helps that Eddie Hearn already had industry contacts through his father, who founded Matchroom Sport and continues to offer guidance. Eddie, however, has brought a lot of business to Matchroom and helped the company grow fantastically in recent years, even when health regulations limited sporting events in the UK.

Eddie has grown Matchroom’s boxing segment into one of the world’s top promoters. He has accomplished this by building relationships with boxers and participating in promotional events. He doesn’t do all of his work behind the scenes. He’s an active participant in interviews and events that hype Matchroom events.

It’s likely that Hearn is also a savvy businessman eager to explore options and make deals that bring in more money. This would help explain why Matchroom made a deal with DAZN that effectively ended the company’s previous relationship with British broadcaster Sky Sports.

As Matchroom continues to grow, Eddie Hearn’s wealth will grow alongside it. Importantly, Hearn also has a large social media following that contributes to his popularity, Matchroom’s success, and his income. He also published a well-received book in 2021 called “Relentless: 12 Rounds to Success.”

Eddie Hearn’s Net Worth

Experts who follow Eddie Hearn’s career believe he’s the richest boxing promoter in the UK. He probably has a net worth of about $55 to $58 million.

Could Eddie Hearn become richer in the near future? He has several options that could add to his personal wealth. Now that restrictions have been lifted, he can arrange and promote more boxing events. He could also expand Matchroom Sport by adding more sports to its roster.

Currently, it has a fairly UK-center lineup that includes boxing, basketball, pool, snooker, and darts. Only boxing and basketball are popular outside of the UK. Including sports with more global appeal could add millions to the company’s value.

Hearn also has opportunities to earn money by selling a portion of Matchroom Sport (although his father has advised him against doing so). Selling a minority stake in Matchroom might double his net worth.

He could also turn Matchroom Sport into a publicly traded company. As long as his family retained majority control of the business, he could continue choosing which promotions to pursue while bringing in millions or even billions of investment dollars.

Owning shares in the business should make it relatively easy for him to borrow money at extremely low interest rates. That way, he could avoid some taxes and maintain ownership of his majority share while accessing even more money.

Does Eddie Hearn Own Matchroom Boxing?

Eddie Hearn does not own Matchroom Boxing, although he plays a critical role in Matchroom’s business dealings and events. Eddie’s father, Barry Hearn, started the business in 1982 and remains its owner.

In 2021, Eddie Hearn became the chairman of Matchroom Sport as his father transitioned to an advisory role (and retained the “president” title). Eddie does control the boxing segment of Matchroom. He’s also heavily involved in the company’s PGA EuroPro events.

Matchroom also promotes events in sports including pool, basketball, netball, gymnastics, and ping pong.

How Do Promoters Get Paid In Boxing?

Boxing promoters can get paid in a variety of ways. Many earn money through ticket sales. They might need to make heavy investments in renting venues and paying people to work the events. Ticket sales help cover these costs.

The boxing promoters can keep any remaining revenue from selling tickets. Getting a large crowd, therefore, can help promoters get paid. This is one of the reasons it’s a big deal that Matchroom attracted more than 73,000 people to the Alvarez vs. Saunders match.

Boxing promoters can also get paid by making deals with media companies. Eddie Hearn and Mathroom Promotions have placed a heavy emphasis on making money by selling distribution rights. For example, Eddie Hearn signed a deal in 2018 that gave DAZN, a sports broadcasting and streaming company, exclusive rights to air 16 events in the U.S.

More recently, Hearn entered a five-year contract that gave exclusive rights to the DAZN streaming service. The contract specifies that DAZN gets to release at least 16 Matchroom UK fights.

Previously, Sky Sports had typically aired Matchroom events in the UK and Ireland. Switching to DAZN likely indicates that Hearn negotiated a better deal that paid him and Matchroom considerably more money. The specific amount of money and how the companies will share profits, however, has not been revealed to the public.

How Much Is Matchroom Promotions Worth?

According to negotiations that took place in 2022, Matchroom is worth between $739 and $862 million.

In an attempt to sell a 25% minority share in the company, Matchroom asked for about $215 from Searchlight Capital, KKR, and CVC Capital Partners.

The deal was never finalized, but many consider the company’s valuation legitimate.

How Is Eddie Hearn Related to Barry Hearn?

Eddie Hearn is the son of Barry Hearn, who founded Matchroom Sport in 1982. Barry Hearn has reportedly encouraged his son to keep the business within the family.

However, Eddie has shown interest in attracting investors who would own a portion of Matchroom. There are also unconfirmed rumors that Eddie Hearn wants to take the company public.

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