LIV Golf vs. PGA Tour: The Real Numbers Behind Golf’s Billion-Dollar Battle
Saudi Arabia has poured more than $5 billion into LIV Golf, but new filings reveal a league burning cash, cutting expenses, and surviving on one successful event.
Three years after LIV Golf upended professional golf by committing hundreds of millions of dollars in guaranteed money to some of the world’s best players, the Saudi Arabian-owned professional golf league is no closer to competing with the PGA Tour.
LIV Golf Ltd., the United Kingdom-based entity that manages LIV Golf’s activities outside the United States, has reported losses of $461.8 million last year. That’s three straight years of accelerating losses: $244 million in 2022, $396 million in 2023, and $462 million in 2024. And if you add in the money that has been invested in LIV Golf’s U.S. business, Saudi Arabia has now committed over $5 billion to the league.
But those are just the headline numbers. When you read through LIV Golf’s recent 46-page regulatory filing, the details are even worse. While everyone seems to think that Saudi Arabia will keep funding the league no matter what, LIV Golf’s 2024 financials tell a different story. LIV Golf is burning cash, tightening expenses, and still generating little to no revenue from media rights, sponsorships, and ticket sales.
So today, we’ll dig into the details. This newsletter will break down LIV Golf’s economics on a per-tournament basis. We’ll discuss their strongest and weakest markets, revealing how much the league is actually generating from media rights and sponsorship deals. I’ve also pulled some of the most interesting details from the report, including executive compensation and how player contracts work. Let’s go.