The sports world was stunned on June 6 by the sudden announcement of the merger between the PGA Tour and European Tour with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which had already backed the LIV Tour.
Saudi Arabia’s focus on sports dates back to 2016 when it first assembled its Saudi Vision 2030 program in an attempt to diversify the country’s economic investments under its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudi Arabian Oil Company or Saudi Aramco is the world’s largest supplier of oil, profiting $161.1 billion in 2022 alone. And it’s mostly owned by the state.
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Saudi Arabia has faced a lot of backlash from around the world, and specifically with the United States for its involvement in the tragic 9/11 terrorist attack and murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. These are on top of already existing human rights atrocities that the country commits against women and the LGBTQ+ community.
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Saudi Arabia Investment Fund's Purchases
But the country is using sports both for its economic benefit and to allegedly commit “sportswashing,” which is to hide atrocities through the glamor and success from sports. And Saudi Arabia has made a laundry list of investments in just seven years since it formed Saudi Vision 2030.
Here are just some of the investments Saudi Arabia has made in the world of sports
1. Golf
The Saudi-backed LIV Golf teed off for the first time in 2022, creating the first major challenger to the PGA Tour. It's unclear just how much the PIF threw towards the totality of arranging LIV Golf, but the sums of money it offered to poach some PGA players, successfully or not, have been reported.
Phil Mickelson, for example, received $200 million. Some players who didn't accept LIV's offers included Tiger Woods, who was reportedly offered up to $800 million; Rory McIlroy, who has denied that he received an offer but reportedly was offered $500 million; and Hideki Matsuyama, who was offered $300 million.
It remains to be seen just how much the PIF will be putting into the league once it merges with the PGA and DP Tour.
In late 2021, the PIF acquired Premiere League club Newscastle United for around $408 million. It has also already poached soccer stars Christiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, both for contracts worth over $100 million annually.
3. WWE
The Saudi fund and the WWE agreed to a 10-year deal worth $1 billion in 2018. As part of the deal, two major WWE events per year would take place in Saudi Arabia, the first of which was the "Greatest Royal Rumble" in April 2018.
Looking for a Big Formula One Deal
4. F1
Formula One held the Saudi Arabian Gran Prix for the first time in 2021, part of a 10-year, $650 million deal that would have one race per year held in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco also has a 10-year, $450 million sponsorship deal with the motorsport league, effectively making Saudi's deal with F1 over $1 billion for the next decade.
Saudi also reportedly offered $20 billion in an effort to acquire the entire Formula One league from Liberty Media, which purchased the motorsport league for $4.4 billiion in 2017, according to a Bloomberg report.
5. Boxing
Saudi Arabia reportedly paid around $100 million to host two fights of Anthony Joshua since 2019. But there are rumors that there may be bigger "super fights" to come as soon as next year in the country.
6. E-Sports
Saudi purchased ESL Gaming for $1 billion then merged it with FaceIt, which it acquired for $500 million, to form ESL FaceIt Group.
