BC Partners starts LIV Golf’s targeted $300M exit financing

LIV Golf runs a men’s professional golf circuit that combines individual competition with branded teams, selling events and those team identities to sponsors, host markets, broadcasters and spectators. BC Partners Credit has committed an initial investment toward a targeted $300 million financing package intended to carry the league out of Chapter 11. The announcement didn’t disclose the initial commitment’s size, and the wider financing remains subject to bankruptcy-court approval and customary conditions.

The league stages tournaments and controls ticketing, hospitality, host-city relationships, broadcast rights and leaguewide sponsorships. Its 13 team entities operate like franchises: they sell their own sponsorships and have typically served as counterparties to player contracts. A tournament can therefore generate revenue at both the league and team levels, while the golfers provide the talent around which both products are built.

Those economics don’t resemble the familiar model of a media-driven sports league. LIV’s bankruptcy declaration, as summarized by credit-research firm Octus, put sponsorships at approximately 49% of 2025 revenue, followed by host fees at 22% and tickets and hospitality at 16%. Broadcast rights contributed just 5%, leaving the business far more dependent on sponsors and event economics than on licensing its broadcasts.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund supplied approximately $5 billion of equity after LIV’s formation and said in April that it would stop further equity infusions. It then agreed in June to fund operations through the 2026 season with a $495 million secured facility. LIV entered Chapter 11 on September 8, and the debtors said the existing structure remained years from projected standalone profitability.

The contemplated $300 million package isn’t a plain rescue loan. Under the September restructuring term sheet summarized by Octus, it comprises a $127.5 million five-year first-lien loan, $147.5 million of senior preferred equity and $25 million of convertible preferred equity. New investors would receive 45% of the reorganized parent, players could receive as much as 52.5% and management would receive 2.5%. Participating golfers would also average approximately 30% ownership of their individual teams.

That ownership exchange is central to keeping LIV’s product together. Participating golfers would replace existing deals with new multiyear service contracts and receive stakes in the league and their teams. The September term sheet made the restructuring contingent on a required group of players signing and major sponsors affirming their contracts; Octus reported that LIV would pivot to a wind-down if the transaction couldn’t close within the bankruptcy-financing timetable.