LIV Golf prepares for bankruptcy filing in September
Challenger golf league is negotiating a funding package with BC Partners for a slimmed-down circuit
LIV Golf may file for bankruptcy protection as soon as the week of September 7, as the challenger golf league races to find funding in the coming days for a slimmed-down version slated for 2027, according to people briefed on the negotiations.
The league in recent days has sent settlement offers to the current LIV players who are owed millions in guaranteed payouts past 2026, with those initial offers at just a few cents on the dollar.
People with knowledge of the situation said the reluctance of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which launched the league in 2022, to provide more funding had played into the meagre offer to the players. The LIV management, meanwhile, remains dependent on the Saudi Public Investment Fund for financial support needed to facilitate the transition.
For several weeks, LIV has been negotiating a funding package with the credit division of private capital firm BC Partners and BC executives have attended recent LIV tournaments in Indiana and New Jersey to make their pitch to players.
The FT previously reported on LIV’s attempt to strike a “grand bargain” whereby its golfers would simultaneously settle claims with the current LIV regime and agree to equity awards and other financial terms for the “LIV 2.0”. Such a deal could be clinched in a pre-packaged bankruptcy.
However, getting commitments from enough top players to entice BC Partners and other funders has proved challenging so far. The DP World Tour, which runs events in Europe and the Middle East, has said recently that players on a future LIV circuit may face fines or bans for playing in league events scheduled in the same weeks as the DP World Tour.
The new LIV circuit envisions a global, 10-tournament slate that would probably require other tours to accommodate its players for the remainder of the season.
“We shouldn’t live in a world where one group of golfers is uniquely restricted from playing elsewhere,” said LIV CEO Scott O’Neil at the 2026 LIV finale earlier this month in Indiana.
LIV was launched by the Saudi Public Investment Fund as a challenger to the US PGA Tour. PIF earlier this year said it would end its funding at the conclusion of the current season, having burned through billions on player signing bonuses and prize money.
Persons close to the bankruptcy said that a Chapter 11 filing may happen without a LIV 2.0 being finalised and described three camps of players: those who settle with LIV and join the reimagined league, those who settle and do not join and those who choose to “fight it out” for their contracted money as unsecured creditors in the bankruptcy.
PIF is expected to fund a bankruptcy loan known as a “debtor-in-possession” financing of under $100mn, though it is adamant about committing no other new funds, according to the people.
“PIF wants a clean baton toss,” said one person involved in the conversations.
News reports in recent weeks have revealed that multiple vendors to LIV golf tournaments have sued over payments they said had not yet been made.
Fees for LIV professional advisers and new independent directors have soared into the tens of millions of dollars, said people familiar with the situation.
The bankruptcy filing may be made in the federal district court of New Jersey, a venue that is known to be friendly to debtors and has overseen such recent high-profile Chapter 11 cases as WeWork and Rite Aid.
Trade publication Sportico reported this summer that LIV Golf had set up a new subsidiary in New Jersey. A person close to the situation said that the New Jersey entity had been established as a possible way to allow for a New Jersey-based Chapter 11 filing.
BC Partners, while conducting due diligence, is itself waiting for LIV and PIF to resolve player payments and structure the bankruptcy terms. Multiple people said that the firm was examining an equity-like investment that would preserve LIV’s “net operating losses”, which total more than $5bn across the US and the UK.
NOLs can be used to reduce taxable income of acquirers, subject to limitations set by the tax code. BC Partners may lead an investment of as much as $300mn to acquire the LIV assets and create a vehicle to “roll-up” other sports assets which can together utilise the NOL, according to a person familiar with BC’s thinking.
Liberty Strategic Capital, the private equity firm founded by former US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, is among the funds to have expressed preliminary interest in backing a BC Partners transaction.
LIV, PIF and BC Partners each declined to comment.