00:00When Live Golf was launched in 2021, it promised to revolutionize the sport and end the PGA Tour's monopoly.
00:08Five years on, the rebel circuit is scrambling for new financial partners.
00:13Its main backer, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, is set to cut its annual funding of more than $1 billion
00:20at the end of the season.
00:22Live, which lured some of golf's biggest names, insists its model will be attractive to new investors.
00:30Dan Plumley is a sport finance lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University.
00:35What we're seeing from Saudi Arabia at the minute with regards to sport is some divestment in some of their
00:41strategies.
00:42They seem to be pivoting towards what they describe as more sustainable operations.
00:46Now, we can take that word sustainable with a pinch of salt, of course, given the money they've put in.
00:51But they do seem to be going down a different strategy route with sport, and it's still very much high
00:56on the agenda.
00:57But I think they are looking at their whole portfolio.
01:00Do you think any of this has much to do with the Middle East crisis, which has had a massive
01:05impact on tourism in the region?
01:07The conflict is always likely to be a factor.
01:10It has ripple effects in terms of wider economic shocks, but it's not the single causal factor.
01:16This might have been something that they would have looked to do anyway with some of their sport portfolio, irrespective
01:22of wider geopolitics.
01:24Is it fair to say that the live golf experiment has essentially failed and that PGA has stood the test
01:32of time?
01:34I think we probably have to be a little bit careful with the word failed right now, that the competition
01:39is still in operation, that they might have to scale back.
01:42Of course, if the funding is there until the end of the season, there might be some change in the
01:47way they operate.
01:48We know they're outwardly looking for investment for somebody to come in and take this forward.
01:54So I think as we're talking right now, it's still a competition that's there.
01:58I think what the PGA have done all the way through this is look to consolidate and strengthen their position
02:04as well, as you would with a disruptor in the market.
02:08There has been some coalescence on certain things, but there is still a long way to go with that relationship.
02:15LiveGolf believes that the TeamGolf model is still highly attractive to investors.
02:20They're also pointing to what they say is a 100% increase in revenue year on year.
02:25Do you think there will be investors come the end of the year when Saudi Arabia pulls out?
02:32Well, look, it's going to be heightened in a sense that if Saudi Arabia and the PIF do pull out,
02:37that they're going to need that investment.
02:39You know, the losses are clear for everyone to see.
02:41In the most recent accounts, they lost $462 million.
02:45We've seen the reliance on the PIF in the sense of funding that, as we've alluded to, a lot.
02:51So they are going to need investment to take it forward.
02:54I think that the TeamGolf dynamic is interesting.
02:57I think we've seen a lot of individual sports look to pivot or to innovate in terms of bringing in
03:03some team aspect because of that frequency of competition,
03:06because of the rivalries you can create.
03:08And that is a unique position between individual sports and team sports.
03:12I think that still holds an attractive place in a sport product marketplace.
03:16But it is pretty clear that, yeah, looking at the numbers alone, that Liv is going to need that investment
03:21in the future if the funding is to stop at the end of the season.
03:25It was always going to be costly, risky and quite lengthy to create an alternative PGA system.
03:32What would you say are the main lessons that have been learned?
03:34The speed at which they've tried to grow has been a challenge.
03:38You know, they only formed in 2021, of course, and that was coming out of a, you know, the pandemic
03:44would have had a big impact at the time as well.
03:46So these things often take longer than perhaps some people expect.
03:50And I think, you know, three, four years in, it's clear to see, again, that they are very financially dependent
03:55on that investment.
03:57They haven't been able to generate the broadcast revenues.
03:59They haven't been able to generate the spectator revenues that other sports and golf at other levels has already got
04:06in place.
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