The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) sovereign wealth vehicle has now piled close to $4 billion in investment into the LIV Golf breakaway tour, but losses at the sports property are continuing to mount.
LIV Golf’s UK arm published its financial accounts for the 2023 calendar year this week which are relevant for the entirety of the tour’s non-US business. The highlight – or lowlight – is an overall loss of $395.94 million, $152.2 million more than the $243.7 million loss it made a year prior.
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While Tour revenue grew more than seven times from $4.9 million in its 2022 debut year to $37.1 million – 37% coming from event hosting fees – despite broadcast rights income amounting to a paltry $3 million, only 8% of the total revenue.
Meanwhile, legal costs (amounting to $15.7 million) more than doubled from 2022, amid player indemnity fees of $6.9 million paid to the rival DP World Tour organization.
The injection of over $400 million in share issues alone takes investment in the LIV Golf UK arm to $1 billion, with $2.9 billion having also been invested into the US arm, painting a dire picture of the series' finances going forward.
In terms of broadcast partners, LIV Golf recently secured a major US media rights deal with the Fox media giant for the 2025 campaign that began on February 6 with LIV Golf Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
However, that event drew dreadful ratings, averaging only 40,200 viewers for its final round, (despite the gimmick of it being played at night, under floodlights), as it was staged at 10AM Eastern Time in the US. The Saturday 10AM round broadcast on Fox Sports 1 averaged 54,000, meanwhile.
The contracts of two of LIV’s most prominent golf stars, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, are both set to expire in 2025, and it is heavily rumored that both are unhappy and wish to return to US golf's PGA Tour.
If that is the case and the tour cannot convince the two multiple major winners (Koepka is a former world number 1 and DeChambeau peaked at world number 4) to remain then it will prove even harder for the tour to attract US viewers.
