LIV Golf is hunting for new investors after Saudi Arabia ended its ongoing financial support for the loss-making league that briefly challenged the PGA Tour's supremacy.
In a statement Thursday, LIV Golf announced it had appointed a new board led by turnaround consultants Gene Davis and Jon Zinman and is looking for talks with prospective global investors to help continue the league.
Following weeks of speculation, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund publicly confirmed its decision to stop funding LIV after the 2026 season, which is scheduled to end in August.
"The substantial investment required by LIV Golf over a longer term is no longer consistent with the current phase of PIF's investment strategy," a representative said in a statement.
The PIF's decision to stop its funding after spending an estimated $5 billion in four years puts the future of the breakaway league in doubt. The wealth fund's substantial investment helped LIV reshape golf's economics by luring stars away from the PGA Tour with giant contracts. Still, it struggled with low attendance and poor television viewership.
Bloomberg News had reported earlier this month that the Saudis were considering pulling funding for LIV. The league has already been engaging with investment banks to find suitors, and hired Citigroup Inc. to sell stakes in teams earlier this year
The decision underscores Saudi Arabia's broader push for greater discipline in capital allocation and a sharper focus on investments that bolster its domestic economy.
In its recently unveiled strategy for the next four years, the PIF said it will step up efforts to boost returns and turn portfolio companies into global champions. That followed months of tough spending decisions in Riyadh, including sweeping reviews of ambitious projects like the planned megacity of Neom and a pivot toward areas more likely to attract foreign investment.
The regional conflict that saw Gulf nations bear the brunt of Iran's attacks is adding to the pressures. Saudi Arabia's economic growth in the three months through March slowed to its lowest since mid-2024, as the kingdom grapples with the war's effects on its crucial oil industry.
Still, the war hasn't slowed the kingdom's dealmaking. Savvy Games Group, a unit of the PIF, agreed to buy Moonton in March in a deal valuing the mobile games maker at $6 billion, and more recently another affiliate committed an additional $550 million to electric-carmaker Lucid Group Inc.
At the same time, there are growing signs the PIF is treating its sports holdings as investments that need to generate returns. Days after the US and Iran announced a ceasefire in early April, the wealth fund sold a majority stake in one of the kingdom's premier football clubs.
"PIF remains committed to deploying capital internationally in line with its investment strategy, including its substantial current and future investments in various sports as a priority sector," a PIF spokesperson said in its statement.
Other sports have also been impacted. The Women's Tennis Association season-ending championship will leave Riyadh after this year's tournament, after negotiations to extend the three-year deal fell through. The PIF reportedly was set to be a major backer in the NBA's push to launch a European league, but that investment has faced internal pushback, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News earlier in April.
LIV launched in 2022 with immense fanfare thanks to a seemingly unlimited budget to take on the PGA Tour. It implemented a 54-hole, no-cut tournament format. Despite introducing innovations like the franchise team model and shotgun starts, the league struggled to secure widespread mainstream acceptance.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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