Ian Poulter's LIV Golf Team Secures Sponsorship With Crypto Exchange Company
In a move that suggests the LIV Golf League will exist in some form going forward, one of the 12 teams has secured its first global sponsorship with OKX, a Crypto exchange company that has signed with Majesticks GC, the team headed by Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Lee Westwood.
The sponsorship makes OKX the first Web3 sponsor of a LIV Golf team, meaning the players will have OKX branding on their golf shirts and offer engagement opportunities and fan experiences at the league’s tournaments. The deal is through the 2024 season.
Two weeks ago, LIV Golf’s future was cast in doubt due to the agreement between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the financial backer of LIV.
With much still to be determined, the fate of LIV and its 48-man, 12-team structure has been questioned, although indications through several sources suggest it will go on as usual for the rest of next year and 2024.
"It certainly instills confidence that a business of OKX’s scale and significant experience in sports marketing sees value in partnering with Majesticks GC," Poulter said via email. "It further demonstrates that we are doing the right things and providing something different for partners to engage with OKX. LIV and Majesticks share a common drive to disrupt their industry; challenge the status quo and engage new audiences. What better way to showcase that than via this partnership."
OKX allows for the selling, trading and buying of cryptocurrencies but is not currently available to U.S. residents, who can access a sister exchange called OKCoin.
According to the media announcement, OKX, Majesticks GC and LIV Golf "share a common drive to disrupt sectors using fresh thinking and new technology."
The company also has partnerships with the Manchester City football club of the Premier League as well as the McLaren F1 racing team.
LIV Golf’s business model has been based on the team concept which sees 12 four-man teams, each of which has a captain who has an equity stake. The Majesticks split their captaincy among Poulter, Stenson and Westwood. Sam Horsfield is the fourth member of the team but is injured and has been replaced by Laurie Canter.
How this franchise model will work in the future remains uncertain.
"We see this partnership between world tours as a positive for golf and its global fan base, many of whom have been attracted by the LIV format and team structure," said OKX chief marketing officer Haider Rafique in an email. “From an OKX point of view, the PGA-DP partnership ensures that a wider audience will get to know our brand and company, also a net positive."
Rafique noted the company had a previous relationship with Poulter, a long-time player on the European Tour and with the European Ryder Cup team, which helped facilitate a deal. And, he said, “we gravitated towards LIV in the golf space because it is a disruptor that isn't afraid to take a look at things differently, ask 'why?' and innovate. As a leading Web3 and crypto company, this is aligned with our ethos."
As part of LIV’s second year, the league shifted the financial responsibilities to the teams. They are tasked with paying their own expenses and raising revenue through the team purse portion of the events and securing sponsorships or selling various pro-am and ticket packages.
Getting a sponsorship for the team "certainly helps our aims both financially and more importantly to deliver on our team mission to make a difference on and off the course," Poulter said. “Utilizing OKX’s expertise in Web3 technology we will be able to reach new and bigger audiences than we could ever hope to do on our own. We are really excited to bring these activations to life throughout the duration of our sponsorship."
LIV Golf launched last year as an eight-tournament invitational series of events with $25 million purses, $5 million earmarked for the top three teams each week.
This year, LIV Golf transitioned to a 14-tournament league schedule with set teams and a 48-player field.
Backed by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the circuit has been slow to gain overall sponsorship as it sought a television rights deal with the CW Network while signing numerous major championship winners, including Cam Smith, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, who won the PGA Championship on May 21.
LIV resumes its schedule on June 30, its eighth event of the year, at the LIV Golf Valderrama tournament in Spain, followed a week later by LIV Golf London.