The Saudi Public Investment Fund has the opportunity to control even more of the sports market, this time by targeting two growing sports leagues.
The Professional Fighters League, a global mixed martial arts league, is reportedly interested in seeking sovereign wealth fund investments, according to its founder and chairman Donn Davis.
“We are a global league and a global sport. Would we like to have investors from outside of the United States? Yes,” Davis said in an interview.
DON’T MISS: The Saudi multi-billion dollar investment in global sports explained
Saudi’s PIF has already invested in combat sports through the boxing matches of Anthony Joshua, but they are also interested in mixed martial arts, according to Bloomberg.
The PFL is a fairly young league, but it made waves after signing heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou away from the UFC in May.
A year prior to the signing, the PFL was valued at $500 million with investments from MLB legend Alex Rodriguez and Monumental Sports & Entertainment owner Ted Leonsis, whose company owns the NBA’s Washington Wizards, WNBA’s Washington Mystics, and NHL’s Washington Capitals.
This could also serve as the connection for the Qatar Investment Authority to be a target for the PFL. The QIA bought a 5% stake in Leonsis’ Monumental Sports & Entertainment in July.
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Another option for Saudi is to continue to invest in golf, but this time in the women’s game. Saudi PIF’s merger with the PGA Tour is progressing after its shocking announcement in June, and an investment in the LPGA Tour could make sense especially in driving equity between the men’s and women’s game.
The LPGA’s young phenom Rose Zhang was asked by Front Office Sports if she can envision investment from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund as helpful for the cause of closing the gap of the LPGA Tour with the PGA Tour, and she thinks “it definitely could.”
“You obviously get everything from the media, and you see how both tours are progressing in the merger, but in terms of women’s golf, there’s a lot that can happen, and I’m more of an observer,” Zhang told FOS.
Saudi Arabia has been criticized for using sports as a means to cover up its human rights atrocities, which includes the lack of equality of rights for men and women in the country.
However, the LPGA Tour and Zhang aren’t the only ones to believe that Saudi money can help drive gender pay equity in sports leagues as tennis legend Billie Jean King and star Jessica Pegula have both argued that an investment from the Saudi PIF could help the WTA Tour close in on the ATP Tour.
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