LIV Golf isnâ€t the only major golf tour losing millions

The biggest golf news of the last week was economic catnip:

LIV Golf’s international business suffered nearly $500 million in losses in 2024.

Half a bil! Coupled with similar losses in 2023 and its launch costs around 2022, the international arm of LIV — roughly half of its operations — has amassed losses northof $1 billion.

The most common question about those staggering numbers — How can the business possibly continue operating? — is often met with: Well, LIV is owned by the Saudi PIF, which has total assets approaching $1 trillion. Big picture, this team-golf thing is merely a rounding error.

Indeed, LIV Golf’s financial backers can afford to keep dumping money into the league; they’ve already proven that. The bigger story, though, is the dearth of encouraging signs in those spreadsheets. The new players, techy add-ons and revolving door of host sites LIV has rolled out have sunk it only deeper into the red. Also at work is something we already knew: running a golf tour is really, really expensive, and running a global circuit is even costlier. Just ask one of LIV’s competitors.

LIV’s international financials were made public via Companies House, the British Government wing that requires financial reporting for all registered companies in the United Kingdom. The DP World Tour (formerly known as the European Tour) falls into the same category, and filings show that it suffered significant losses of its own.

LIV Golf financials: League suffered major international losses in 2024

By:

Sean Zak

In 2024, the DPWT’s non-Ryder Cup revenue was as high as ever, its event attendance increased and so did TV ratings for its biggest tournaments (the Rolex Series). Sponsorship revenue saw a 15% hike and consumer revenue — things like merchandise, ticketing and hospitality sales — grew by nearly 30%.

How, then, did the DPWT accrue $32 million in losses?

Again, we refer you to the LIV case study: Stretching pro golf to all corners of the globe is pricey. And LIV doesn’t have the profit engine that is the Ryder Cup to bail it out.

It is hardly a revelation that the DPWT’s partial ownership of the Ryder Cup is what keeps it afloat, but it’s in those financial documents where we really begin to understand the event’s value. According to the 2024 report, the Ryder Cup is a roughly $110 million revenue generator when held in Europe every four years; that figure amounts to roughly a third of the revenue driven by the DPWT’s entire 44-event annual schedule. Profits from home Ryder Cups have helped offset the costs of hosting tournaments on four different continents. So has the windfall from the DPWT’s strategic alliance with the PGA Tour.

As part of that deal, the PGA Tour has been sending roughly $25 million across the pond (on average) since 2021, mostly to fund DPWT purses, which rose to $153 million this year. In return, the PGA Tour received a stake in European Tour Productions that will grow to 40% by 2030. In a time of great challenges — the intersection of Covid and the rise of LIV — the PGA Tour extended a hand to its pals across the pond. Two years later, the PGA Tour (more than) doubled down on its investment, and the DPWT now has a much longer runway to keep strengthening the pro game internationally.

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