On the Zuffa vs Bellator lawsuit
Not pictured: An uncertain future
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Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC and WEC, decided to sue one of its competitors, Bellator at the end of July. Zuffa alleges that Bellator had stolen various trade secrets, including Zuffa’s business plans for the UFC and WEC. The lawsuit centres around a fellow named Ken Pavia. Pavia is an agent for a number of fighters in various promotions and Zuffa is claiming that Pavia gave confidential documents to Bellator. Bellator has countersued for, among other things, fraud and tortious interference.
If there is any truth to these allegations, things look bad for Bellator. Assuming this isn’t some frivolous lawsuit, Bellator is going to be bled from all the legal fees to defend/counter something like this plus the potential settlement. Zuffa has much deeper pockets at this point in time and Dana White isn’t exactly known for his fondness of smaller rivals. Attempting to steal a company’s business plan is a textbook example of corporate espionage- a business plan is a very in-depth break down of the business. As someone who has been involved in start-up companies, I can say that proper business plans are dozens of pages and they are often a very important part of pitching your ideas to investors and buyers. For a large company they would be longer and contain even more sensitive information. They contain information on everything: expenses, payroll, loans, projections for future revenues, growth areas, risk areas, etc. In other words, it’s serious business. You do not want people you supposedly do business with taking your business plan and giving excerpts to other people in the industry. The fighters Pavia represents that are contracted to Zuffa are probably going to bail on him if the case moves ahead – no one wants their agent to be showing their confidential contract to competitors.
For fans, this is also a bad situation: Bellator consistently puts on good cards. People who watch a Bellator card don’t go away dissatisfied, and the loss of Bellator means the loss of great entertainment. It also means Zuffa gets closer to reaching monopoly status in North America. There’s nothing wrong with Zuffa or the UFC/WEC, but lack of competition is a negative thing for almost any industry. We may be cursing the hubris of whoever was responsible for this idea for awhile. Enjoy the rest of season 3, and hope that it’s not the last.
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