Established in 1988 as an international sports management and marketing company, it is headquartered in Madrid, with branch offices and/or subsidiaries in Barcelona, Amsterdam, London and Rome.

The purchase was closely supervised by American Hardy McLain, cost $80 million (approximately), half of which was needed to pay off Dorna debt.

McLain, one of the founders of CVC and formerly an executive of Citibank (CVC was spun out of Citibank in 1981), was present at several motorcycle Grand Prix events in 1998 but, confident in the ability of Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta, has left the running of the company to the Spaniard, as well as the almost completely Spanish Dorna executive leadership.

In October 2023, third-party sources were reporting that Spanish news website El Confidencial had suggested Dorna Sports could be available for sale at the price of €2 billion.

[8] In 2005, with the growth of the Internet, Dorna began the controversial practice of charging for Press Credentials for online publications.