Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand says the LIV Golf group has awarded a production deal bid to NEP Group, which also handles general production for the PGA Tour.
Awkward alert!
As Ourand notes, the PGA Tour has understandably been trying to discourage such deals by its partners.
That’s because NEP already has a deep relationship with the PGA Tour, which has been dissuading its corporate partners from working with the Saudi-backed upstart league.
Essentially, the PGA Tour’s partners have to decide whether it’s worth the risk of angering tour executives in order to grow their business — and presumably cash a big check — with LIV Golf.
For the most part, the PGA Tour’s messaging has been delivered. If NEP signs a deal, it would become one of the only companies to work with both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
NEP has been the Tour’s partner as it took control of on the television compounds at their events. It’s led to noticeably upgraded PGA Tour Live coverage on ESPN+.
Ourand also has this on LIV’s efforts to land a major media partner:
The other big question is who will carry the LIV Golf events in the U.S., considering that most of the big U.S.-based media companies already have deep relationships with the PGA Tour. Sources said LIV Golf had discussions about doing a deal with Fox, but those talks died down weeks ago.
