Golfer Rory McIlroy, who recently won the 2025 Masters Tournament to achieve a career grand slam of major championships, is teaming up with private equity firm TPG Inc. to build out a dedicated sports investing business, TPG Sports, to peruse sports investment opportunities.
The platform aims to take a private equity approach to sports investing, according to a statement from TPG, by “providing business-building capabilities and strategic primary capital to help sports IP and operating businesses grow and scale.”
Northern Ireland native McIlroy, who founded sports investing firm Symphony Ventures PTE Ltd. with business partner Sean O’Flaherty in 2019, has partnered with TPG in the past. That business will contribute to sourcing investment opportunities for TPG Sports, along with O’Flaherty, according to the announcement.
“The continued global rise in sports viewership and fandom is creating new opportunities that demand creative, growth capital,” said Todd Sisitsky, president of TPG, in a statement. “TPG Sports brings together the hallmarks of our investment style—our bespoke and long-term approach to partnerships, deep operating and business-building capabilities, and a multi-decade ecosystem of industry leaders like Rory and his team—to invest behind and grow businesses that are redefining the future of sports.”
The sports investing platform also received an unspecified anchor commitment from Lunate, an Abu-Dhabi based alternative investment manager, with $110 billion in assets under management.
Private equity firms and institutional investors have become increasingly interested in sports investments: buying whole or parts of sports teams, investing in broadcasting rights, providing debt financing and investing in the broader ecosystem.
In August 2024, the National Football League voted to allow a select handful of private equity firms to take stakes in the league’s teams. That led to December 2024 into the Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins from Arctos Partners and Ares Management, respectively.
In March, the National Basketball Association’s Boston Celtics were sold to a consortium of investors that included private equity firm Sixth Street.
“The sports landscape is evolving in real time, and the ways we play, watch, and interact with sports are changing in exciting ways,” McIlroy said in a statement. “With TPG Sports, we have the capabilities, capital, and insights to invest behind and grow the businesses that are enabling this transformation.”
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Tags: Lunate, professional sports, Rory McIlroy, sports, TPG, TPG Sports