After dipping their toes into the UFC's new rights package two weeks ago by signing a five-year deal worth $150 million per year, ESPN has decided to go all in. The company officially announced the deal Wednesday afternoon.

According to Tuesday's report from Variety, ESPN successfully outbid Fox Sports for the remainder of the UFC broadcast deal to become the exclusive television and streaming rights holder in an overall package worth $1.5 billion over five years.

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The deal upped ESPN's total coverage to 30 cards annually beginning in January 2019. But Wednesday's report by Sports Business Daily raised that total to 42 events in all, including 15 exclusive to the subscriber-based ESPN+ streaming service and the remainder on linear ESPN/ESPN2 (including 10 pay-per-view preliminary cards). UFC will retain rights to its PPV events, which is expected to be 12 per year.

"ESPN's unparalleled multimedia platform is the perfect home for the UFC and will deliver tremendous value to both parties," ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. "UFC fans are passionate and loyal and we plan to bring the full power of ESPN's live coverage, powerful storytelling and unmatched distribution to serve them in an unprecedented fashion. We can't wait to get started."

The expiring Fox Sports deal was originally signed in 2011, paying UFC an average of $116 million annually (including $160 million in 2018). The ESPN deal raises UFC's annual price tag to $300 million per year, which fell short of the promotion's target of $450 million set by new owners WME-IMG after purchasing the company in 2016 for $4 billion. 

Fox's exit from UFC coverage comes just days after reportedly signing a five-year deal with WWE worth north of $1 billion to broadcast "SmackDown Live" on Friday nights. 

The UFC deal has helped ESPN+ quickly distinguish itself as a major player in the combat sports space after leading boxing promoter Top Rank signed a four-year deal with the network last August.