⛳️ Rory McIlroy: Golf's Next Billionaire
This week, we explore one of the greatest athletes in our lifetime.
Rory McIlroy is on course to be an extremely prominent individual in the tech space. At just 33 years old his career earnings already sit at $81m. That number will balloon over the coming years, as will his endorsements and most notably, his investments.
Before we dive in however, a note about Peng Shuai. I sincerely hope she is alive, well and okay. Wild stuff happening in China, I can’t believe I am reading.
With that said, let’s go Rory.
A quick bio on Rory McIlroy:
One of the best golfers of our generation
One of the highest paid athletes in the world
Future billionaire
This week golf-course management company Troon announced that they are going to take strategic investment from Symphony Ventures, the investment arm founded by Rory McIlroy.
The terms of the deal have not been disclosed but early signs suggest this could be a very shrewd move from Rory and his team.
Troon are a very important company in the world of golf. They manage more than 640 18-hole-equivalent golf courses around the world. They also own or leases more than 50 courses across the world.
When the NY Times asked Rory McIlroy why he set up Symphony Ventures, his answer was a simple one:
I know golf isn’t going to last forever. Once golf comes to an end, I won’t be looking for something to do.
He is already on track to make a lot of money from his off-field investments.
In just 18 months, Symphony have invested in several innovative companies. Many of which are health-tech organisations, many are attached to golf.
🕰 A timeline of investments from Symphony Ventures
July 2021: Puttery ~ Venture Round
Rory invested £7.2m in Drive Shack’s latest venture Puttery (a Top Golf alternative in the US). Rory will receive 10% ownership in each Puttery venue as they are opened in the United States.
June 2021: LetsGetChecked ~ Series D
LetsGetChecked offers at-home tests including screenings for sexual health, cholesterol, diabetes, thyroid and COVID-19, as well as follow-up care through its telehealth and pharmacy app. Rory’s investment was undisclosed.
May 2021: Kin Insurance ~ Series C
April 2021: Kaia Health ~ Series C
Feb 2021: PatientsLikeMe ~ Venture Round
PatientsLikeMe have one of the largest patient communities in the world. Members can put their disease experiences in context and find answers to their questions. Rory once more, invested in a health platform following a similar theme to his previous investments.
June 2020: Kaia Health ~ Series B
Kaia Health offers an alternative to painkillers, using mobile technology. Again, Rory’s investment is undisclosed, but he is a big fan.
May 2020: Golf Genius Software ~ Series A raising $5m
Rory’s first foray as a lead investor was in Golf Genius. Their flagship product GGTMS is the most widely used and fully featured golf tournament management system in the world.
Most of these investments have a common thesis. Golf-tech and health-tech. By doing this Rory has direct exposure to their products allowing for maximum marketing opportunities whilst he is in his golfing prime.
Symphony have no exits yet but are set to increase their number of investments over the next few years with a very good team at Rory’s disposal.
We have a few trusted people who have been in the venture capital and private equity world a long time. I don’t sit down and do the due diligence.
Rory narrowly missed out on a winners purse of $3m in the DP World Tour tournament in Dubai yesterday finishing in a Tie for 3rd pocketing $199,000.
I for one, am very excited to see where he and Symphony decices to go next.
💵 Earlier this year NBA franchise the Miami Heat rebranded their arena from the American Airlines arena to the FTX Arena in a 19yr/$125m deal. This week, the Los Angeles Lakers went one better. On Christmas Day, the iconic Staples Centre, the home of the LA Lakers will be re-branded to the Crypto.Com Arena in a 20yr/$700m deal. This deal brings Crypto.Com’s investment in sports partnerships past a whopping $1bn in the past year!
🃏 The market for sports investing gets bigger and bigger. Alt is a marketplace where people can exchange their Sports Trading cards. A StockX for Collectible cards if you will. This week, they announced a Series B Funding Round raising $75m. It was led by a series of prominent venture capital companies as per, but once again, a raft of prominent athletes joined the cap table. Tom Brady (NFL), Candace Parker (WNBA), Giannis Antetokounmpo (NBA), Alex Morgan (Soccer), and Marlon Humphrey (NFL), participated in the Series B, joining Larry Fitzgerald (NFL), Kelvin Beachum (NFL) and of course Kevin Durant (NBA) in the Series A.
Athletes making their mark in the tech space is one of my favourite things in the world. More of these stories to come I’m sure.
💵 Just incase you missed it I’m just going to reiterate this story once more! Twenty years. Seven. Hundred. Million,. Dollars. The Crypto.Com Arena doesn’t really have a ring to it but I’m sure the Los Angeles Lakers don’t mind. This is the biggest naming rights deal in the history of all sports. Wild scenes.
📲 Premier League secure $2.7bn US Broadcast deal
Last week, I told you the Premier League was in the final stages of negotiating a new deal for Premier League Broadcast rights in the States.
The Times reported that NBC were set to pay $1.5bn for the rights to the Premier League for six seasons starting from next September.
Well…
The bag well-and-truly went up!
The ink became dry last week at a whopping $2.7bn meaning an almost 130% uplift in the current deal.
⚽️ Where does the money go?
The money received from broadcasters is split amongst each Premier League club on a sliding scale based on merit.
This sizeable increase means the PL Champions will get an additional £25m per year from the broadcast rights with the bottom club getting an extra £9m per year.
With La Liga and Serie A in weak positions the Premier League has moved to strengthen its stronghold as the economic powerhouse in world football.
Next year, the UK broadcast deal currently owned by Sky, BT Sport and Amazon is up for renewal. I cannot wait to see what that deal will look like next summer.
See you all next Monday