LIV Golf's global expansion strategy, with Scott O'Neill

Executive overview

Most major golf has been played in the US. LIV is taking the world's top players to the other 7.2 billion people across 199 countries.

The league is five years old and growing fast: revenue up 108% last year, expenses up 8%. Scott O'Neill, former CEO of the 76ers and Devils, brings a startup mindset to a sport with a century-old rival.

The core bet: teams, global markets, and fan-first formats can build a new sports institution from scratch.

What makes LIV different from the PGA Tour

• Shotgun start: all 57 players tee off simultaneously; rounds finish in ~4.5 hours
• Teams: regionally anchored (Ripper GC for Australia, Southern Guards for South Africa, etc.), modelled on Ryder Cup nationalism
• Star players — DeChambeau, Rahm, Mickelson — are team captains and equity holders, not just contractors
• No roped-off stands; players sign autographs and take selfies during and after play
• Post-round concerts, parachuters, fireworks; 60% of fans are under 40
• 30% of attendees have never been to a golf event; 40% have never played

The business model

• Players sell their sponsorship rights to LIV in exchange for a flat fee plus team equity — aligning incentives to grow revenue
• Teams are currently profitable small businesses; O'Neill expects 13 teams to grow to 15, with outside investors buying stakes
• Franchise value precedent: Jeff Lurie paid $188m for the Eagles; they're now worth over $6 billion
• LIV owns the league and the teams — future structure mirrors NBA/NFL where teams will be separately owned
• Revenue growth funded by PIF (Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund), run as a private equity portfolio with hard KPIs and weekly reporting

Fan growth and cultural strategy

• Australia event: 115,000 attendees, record-breaking; 5 million viewers
• South Africa: 45% of the sports-watching audience tuned in — double the Masters' local audience
• Girls aged 12–18 taking up golf in South Australia: up 212% since LIV arrived; golf clubs went from vacancies to waiting lists
• LIV events generate economic impact ($80m in South Africa in one weekend) and attract heads of state and corporate chairmen
• Expanding the format beyond golf: concerts, food, art, and fashion are being layered in to build a broader cultural event

The Anthony Kim story

• Kim was heralded as the next Tiger Woods before an Achilles injury, drug addiction, and two cardiac arrests ended his career for 12 years
• A daughter prompted his recovery; he returned to golf with LIV, won in Adelaide, and was greeted by his daughter running onto the 18th green
• O'Neill cites this as the essence of why sports matters: "one common language we can understand"

LIV vs. PGA Tour

• O'Neill frames it as "complete, not compete": PGA has the US locked up; LIV takes the rest of the world
• Potential collaboration areas: aligning global calendars, cross-shareholding, shared content — none requiring a formal merger
• Trump has hosted LIV events and is vocal about brokering a deal; O'Neill says a PGA agreement is not necessary for LIV's model to advance

Operating under Saudi ownership

• PIF is managed like any private equity firm — Blackstone, Apollo comparisons; hard ROI targets and weekly KPIs
• "Return on image" is a secondary but real objective: bringing the World Cup or Olympics to a country delivers economic and diplomatic impact
• O'Neill declines to speak on behalf of Saudi Arabia but notes the $80m economic impact events generate and the government and business leaders they convene

What's next and what LIV is saying no to

• Women's golf: PIF and Aramco are already the world's largest investors in women's golf; how that integrates with LIV is unresolved
• Gaming (online and console) and sports betting are attractive but deprioritised — not enough capacity to execute well right now
• Outside team owners are coming; O'Neill calls the resulting complexity ("salary caps, revenue sharing, roster decisions") a "champagne problem"
• Continued format evolution: golf + music + food + art + fashion, with the most mature events showing what that can look like