Highlight Reel: Castore Deal Latest Sign of LIV Golf’s Momentum ⛳
Plus Six Nations ponders its free-to-air status and the Saudi Pro League and TikTok live-stream a match for fans in Brazil...
Good morning! We have finished the month strong with our first New York Happy Hour of the year, setting the tone for what’s shaping up to be a big year for our community.
A huge thank you to Alex for getting the ball rolling—and a big congrats to him on his new role at the NY Mets! 👏
And a special shoutout to James, Olly, Ginelle, and Lou for stepping in at the last minute to ensure the London Happy Hour went ahead without a hitch—true team players! Looking forward to catching up with many of you soon.
Now, onto this week’s hottest topics:
Castore lands its first golf deal 👀
TNT weighs up the Six Nations pay-TV impact 📺
Saudi Pro League streams live on TikTok for the first time ⚽️
As always, we’re cutting through the noise and unpacking why these moves matter, often informed by of our brilliant WhatsApp community (which keeps going from strength to strength).
Let’s get into it:
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LIV-ING IT UP
Castore Deal Latest Sign of LIV Golf’s Momentum ⛳
British sportswear brand Castore has signed a multi-year partnership with LIV Golf’s Majesticks GC, becoming their Official Worldwide Apparel Partner.
Castore will supply teamwear, training wear, and accessories for Majesticks GC, whose roster includes Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, and Henrik Stenson.
The partnership will debut at the LIV Golf season opener in Riyadh on February 6.
It’s part of a wider push as LIV Golf continues to gain commercial traction, securing major sponsorships, broadcasting deals, and greater mainstream visibility.
LIV Golf has also secured apparel sponsorships with Reebok (Crushers GC), JAXXON, and SANTO STUDIO (4Aces GC), alongside a multi-year broadcasting deal with Fox Sports and a partnership with golf YouTuber Rick Shiels.
Why It Matters:
For Castore, this deal aligns with its strategy of expanding into high-performance sports, tapping into golf’s lucrative apparel market. Golf attracts affluent, brand-conscious consumers, making this a natural extension of Castore’s premium, technical sportswear focus.
For LIV Golf, the growing influx of corporate sponsorships and media deals signals increasing legitimacy and strengthens the identity of its team brands.
LIV has taken a modern media-first approach, evident in its partnerships with Fox Sports and Rick Shiels, and its push to empower players as content creators—most notably Bryson DeChambeau, who revealed on the Joe Pomp Show that he’s invested $1 million into his YouTube efforts. These moves are paying off, as rising sponsor interest suggests brands are increasingly betting on LIV’s long-term future.
OPINION
🗣️ Alex Newman & Jasmine Fearnley: Why Cole Palmer Applied to Register his Goal Celebration
“There has also been a lot of speculation and apparent misunderstanding about why Cole has applied to register his goal celebration. The answer is simple. It is because there is a growing commercial market for Cole Palmer, because his goal celebration and the associated Cold Palmer nickname are highly marketable aspects of his personable brand, and because Cole wants to maximise his ability to control – and if necessary stop - the way businesses use representations of him performing that celebration for their own commercial purposes.
And for all those people who have been wondering or lured in by the headlines, he has not applied to register his goal celebration as a trade mark so he can stop other professional footballers, whether Morgan Rogers or anyone else, other sportspersons, or kids in the playground, from doing the same or similar celebration when they score!”
TO PAY, OR NOT TO PAY?
Six Nations and TNT Wary of Knock-On Effects of Potential Pay-TV Deal 🏉
TNT Sports is believed to have expressed interest in acquiring broadcasting rights for the Six Nations, but acknowledges the challenges posed by the tournament's historic free-to-air status.
The current £90 million BBC-ITV deal expires after 2025, with a new agreement potentially worth £100 million.
The Six Nations is a Category B event, meaning it can be shown on pay-TV, but highlights must remain free-to-air. This limits potential exclusivity, making a full pay-TV takeover difficult.
The tournament has historically been free-to-air, drawing an average UK audience of 4.5 million per match. Fans fear a move to pay-TV could shrink viewership, limit accessibility, and impact grassroots rugby.
TNT is building a strong rugby portfolio, already holding Premiership Rugby and the Autumn Nations Series.
Why It Matters:
For fans, shifting the Six Nations behind a paywall risks shrinking its audience and alienating casual viewers. Rugby’s strength—especially in the UK and Ireland—lies in its broad accessibility, and limiting exposure could have knock-on effects on grassroots participation and long-term fan growth.
From a commercial standpoint, a pay-TV deal may generate short-term media revenue, but some industry experts warn that the trade-off could be lower sponsorship value. With brands paying a premium for eyeballs and engagement, reducing audience scale could ultimately cancel out any financial gains or even leave the competition worse off in the long run.
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HIGHLIGHTS
Women’s Elite Rugby has unveiled the names, colours, and crests of its six teams in collaboration with MATTA. The branding reflects WER’s high-energy, fearless identity, aiming to redefine rugby’s perception in the US 🏉
Warner Bros. Discovery is merging Eurosport UK into TNT Sports, shifting all live sports, including Grand Slam tennis and cycling, to TNT and Discovery+ UK. This streamlines WBD’s sports content under one brand 📺
Six Nations has partnered with Scopely’s ‘Monopoly Go!’ for in-stadium and digital activations, including a ‘Super Saturday’ ticket giveaway and an on-field presence at Stade de France 🎲
Aston Martin’s Creator Collective, run with TikTok, has named five winners who will showcase their storytelling skills on a global stage, strengthening F1’s digital fan engagement 🏎️
The Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four will be held in Abu Dhabi for the first time, marking a major expansion into the Middle East for Europe’s top basketball competition 🏀
Louis Vuitton has secured naming rights for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix 2025 and will feature in podium celebrations, cementing F1’s luxury appeal 🏁
A MATTER OF TIME…
TikTok Pilots Live Football Streaming with Saudi Pro League ⚽
The Saudi Pro League (SPL) has taken its partnership with TikTok to the next level, live-streaming the Al-Hilal vs. Al-Wehda match exclusively for fans in Brazil.
This pilot, part of their broader collaboration for the 2024/25 season, could pave the way for TikTok to expand its live-streaming of the league into more markets.
Why Brazil? The choice was strategic—Brazil is home to the third-largest TikTok user base (105M+ users), boasts 22 Brazilian players in the SPL, and has a flexible broadcasting landscape that allows for innovative distribution methods.
This move builds on TikTok’s existing SPL partnership, which already includes behind-the-scenes content, exclusive player interviews, and other digital rights.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia itself remains TikTok’s strongest market, with 133.7% penetration among users aged 18+.
Why It Matters:
Early results from the trial suggest strong engagement, reinforcing TikTok’s growing ambitions in live sports streaming as it pushes into longer-form content. It’s also yet another example of sports rightsholders meeting fans where they are, rather than expecting audiences to adapt to traditional broadcast models. If successful, we could see more leagues following suit—reshaping sports media consumption in the process.
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OPINION
🗣️ Corey Leff (JWS): Payment-Linked Fan Loyalty is Sports’ Next Revenue Frontier
“The base case for implementing a payment-linked loyalty program is compelling.
The average NFL fan spends ~$3,200/year on discretionary purchases unrelated to game attendance. A basic program that captured even 1% of that amount would net the franchise an additional $32 annually.
That’s a reasonable amount to expect a club to capture. Payment-linked loyalty programs generate, on average, more than $100 per ‘top-of-wallet’ user each year.
For an NFL team with one million fans, that could realistically mean more than $32mm in incremental annual recurring revenue–and that’s before it layers on any advanced features or AI-powered capabilities.
Artificial intelligence can supercharge an organization’s loyalty strategy by optimizing various components of the program’s foundation in real-time.”
JOBS & ASKS
Within the SP Community, we love to share opportunities—whether it’s a job, a search for a new tech vendor, sponsorship, or even investment. We highlight these opportunities on the website as ‘Asks’ or on our Job Board.
Here’s a taster of recent Asks:
Sponsor Series 4 of the Sports Pundit Podcast 🎙️
A call for Swedish and Finnish Celebrities for an NHL campaign 🏒
College/ NIL-related Companies Currently Fundraising 💰
And here’s a few featured jobs:
Director, Consumer Insights - NY Mets ⚾️
Partnerships Manager (US) - Premier League ⚽️
Head of Marketing, Global Football - New Balance 👟
Head over to the website to check out these opportunities or to submit your own.
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WRAP UP
That’s a wrap for this week—huge thanks to everyone who’s part of our growing community.
A special shoutout to Mark Thompson for his insights this week, particularly his first-hand perspective on Burnley FC Women's partnership with TikTok. It earns him the title of Contributor of the Week 👑
We’re also delighted to welcome even more brilliant minds to the Sports Pundit community! Big welcome to:
Rob Scotland (Veo Technologies)
Marga Balvert Lobbosco (Into-brand)
Rory Renwick (Accedo)
Justin Chang (Academy Sports + Outdoors)
Priyan Davda (McKinsey)
Paul Clarke (The Leaders Coach)
Ben Pilbeam (Think Beyond)
Ramón Mollá (Develop Inmobiliaria)
Dan Naylor (Sport_OS)
Harry Jenkins (Rocket Sports)
Riccardo Spina (IULM University, Milan)
Liam Davies (The Millar Agency)
Tom Smith (Tomorrow)
Janet Onwukamuche (Wharton MBA)
Kayla Pace (New York Mets)
Staci Jackson (Black Heart Sports)
James Tree (Off The Wall Capital)
Tom Maden Wilkinson (Sheffield Hallam University)
Stu Rowson (Lucky Socks Media)
Giles Goodwin (Global Sport Technology)
Elvira Alvarez Martí (Six Nations Rugby)
Mikey Kaye (Ex-IMG)
Great to have you all on board—looking forward to your contributions! 🚀
Not part of the group yet? What are you waiting for? Apply to join us by filling out a simple form on the website.
EVENTS
The group chat is fantastic, but we know the best connections happen face-to-face. That’s why our community events are all about being simple, accessible, and meaningful—hosted by members, for members.
Want to attend an event or even host one yourself? It’s super easy—just head over to the website and apply.
Here’s to building connections that matter!