How Can Golf Continue to Create Revenue Amid PGA/LIV merger?

Golf is entering a new frontier in its history following the merger between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour. The breakaway LIV series stunned the world as several leading players were lured away by the riches of the competition. Although there was resistance between the two organizations, the PGA Tour has now combined with LIV to reunite the sport.

It is not a harmonious peace, but the two groups have to come to work together to preserve the future of golf, with revenue streams and funding becoming a crucial issue to ensure that all players and clubs are represented fairly.

The game is also transitioning away from the star power of Tiger Woods, who has been the leading brand figure of golf for over two decades. Rory McIlroy among others is aiming to fill that void, but the sport may need to look beyond traditional revenue streams to ensure the financial security of the game…

Golf provides one of the best avenues for companies to provide sponsorships with hundreds of events taking place every year. There are many partnerships with the PGA Tour along with companies including Rolex, Aon, Mastercard, and many more.

Golf now has betting partners amid the relaxation of gambling regulations in the United States and Canada. So, there is plenty of scope for companies to flood in to secure naming rights amid other marketing opportunities.

The naming rights for tournaments on the PGA Tour are always up for renewal to the highest bidder. The four majors have not been touched given their importance to the prestige of the game, but it could be explored in the future due to the importance of securing additional funding.

New opportunities are emerging all the time as highlighted by the successful Netflix series ‘Full Swing’. Golf documentaries were sparse and limited to seeing the game through the traditional lens of filmmaking with highlights spliced with interview footage.

But, ‘Full Swing’ has followed in the path of other series such as ‘Drive to Survive’ and ‘Break Point’ to give an all-access look at the sport and its high-profile players. These documentaries along with expanded TV coverage that is now available through streaming services present the game’s hierarchy with an important decision to make. Amazon, Apple, and other platforms will be prepared to pay significant sums to broadcast the major competitions in the future.

EA Sports had held the commodity of console rights for gaming and has enjoyed a great deal of success using the image of Woods and McIlroy. In the last edition of the game, it moved away from player branding and focused on the PGA Tour and the road to the Masters itself. The appeal of a golf game has ensured that it has remained successful. But an area that has not been explored is mobile iGaming. Although iGaming is still relatively new and is not universally available across the United States, it has been a constant in Europe for 20 years.

Slot games are an extremely prevalent part of the service, particularly those that have brand recognition from themes in popular culture. Slot pages on an online casino site can offer a wide range of sporting-themed games that could be branded to offer the PGA Tour and LIV to a new audience demographic.

Using sites that already have experience in the sporting industry as a sponsor of Watford Football Club will provide a knowledgeable platform base for the game to hit the ground running with an iGaming partner. There are plenty of options to consider for a game in the iGaming industry as other sporting genres have discovered.

There are plenty of commercial means for the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to explore to further raise revenue and interest in the game. It will be very interesting to watch and determine the next steps following the planned merger. But, if the two parties go their separate there are means for both to enjoy success in branching out into new revenue streams.