Saudi Arabia’s SRJ Sports Investment Eyes Fresh Cycling League

In its latest bid to dominate the global sport industry, SRJ Sports Investment, the sporting division of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has reportedly entered exclusive talks to back a new cycling league.

According to a Reuters report, SRJ Sports Investment is reportedly looking to invest around US$270m??in the project, which is being spearheaded by several major European cycling teams, including Jim Ratcliffe owned Ineos Grenadiers.

The teams involved believe the majority of profits from top events, including the Tour de France, go to the organisers?and a new league will be a means to redistribute earnings more evenly.

The commercial aspects of the deal are expected to be ironed out with SRJ over the next two months after the sovereign wealth fund beat other interested parties, including private equity firm CVC, to the deal.

According to ASN data, cycling has a mere 0.3% share in the Asian sport sponsorship market— seeing investment of almost US$43.4m—since Q221. Investment for Q124 is forecasted to reach about US$3.8m, just slightly below the average quarterly investment of US$3.9m. Saudi Arabia’s potential dive into the cycling is certain to give a significant investment and sponsorship lift to the sport in Asia.

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This article was first published in ASN's February 2024 no. 2 newswire.