LIV Golf Secures Last Minute Coverage
Rights to the LIV Golf Invitational Series, the controversial new Saudi Arabia-backed golf competition, have been acquired by a raft of international broadcasters, according to a report by SportBusiness.
The report details how last-minute broadcast deals for the series’ inaugural event, which begins today (9th June) at the Centurion Club in St Albans, have been reached with broadcasters including DAZN, Eleven Sports, Sky Deutschland, SPOTV in Southeast Asia and SuperSport in sub-Saharan Africa.
Prior to this announcement, the eight-event competition, which is funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), had failed to land any arrangements with major broadcasters and was scheduled to be streamed on the organisation’s website, YouTube and Facebook.
According to the SportBusiness report, the new agreements will ensure that the first event will be broadcast in roughly 150 countries and territories, including all major markets.
The upstart golf series has been making headlines in recent weeks. The PGA has said it will ban any players who take part in the new event, resulting in Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and Kevin Na rescinding their memberships in order to take part, while Saudi Arabia has been accused of using the new series to ‘sports wash’ its reputation.
PIF also funds many sporting events, including Formula 1 and boxing, and is the majority shareholder of Premier League football club Newcastle United.
LIV Golf is fronted by two-time major winner and former world number one Greg Norman. Earlier this year, Norman announced that he had secured £1.6bn of funding from the PIF to turn the series into a 14-event league by 2024.
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