Tiger, Rory’s TMRW Sports valued at $500 million in Series A funding round

TMRW Sports announced the completion of its Series A investment round co-led by Dynasty Equity and Connect Ventures. Founded in 2022 by Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and former Golf Channel executive Mike McCarley, TMRW’s first project is the technology-driven team golf league TGL, scheduled to launch in January 2025.

The funding round values ​​TMRW Sports at “nearly $500 million,” according to a person familiar with the terms who was not authorized to comment publicly. Bloomberg was the first to report on the funding news and valuation.

Dynasty Equity, co-founded by Jonathan Nelson and Don Cornwell to invest in sports assets, acquired a minority stake in Liverpool FC from Fenway Sports Group last year. As part of the TMRW investment, Cornwell joins the board as an observer.

Connect is an investment partnership between entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates. Connect led the first round of funding for TMRW Sports with participation from investors with deep ties to the banking and sports industries, including longtime NBC Sports executive Dick Ebersol, former Goldman Sachs partner and NFL EVP Eric Grubman, former NHL COO John Collins and former Goldman Sachs chairman of global equity capital markets John Daly.

In November 2022, TMRW Sports announced an expanded list of investors, including team owners Arthur Blank, David Blitzer and Fenway Sports Group, as well as star athletes Stephen Curry, Lewis Hamilton, Alex Morgan, Shohei Ohtani and Serena Williams, and musicians Justin Bieber, DJ Khaled, Darius Rucker and Justin Timberlake.

TMRW Sports was created to take the sport into the future using technology and new media. The six TGL teams each consist of four golfers who hit their shots on a 3,000-square-foot golf simulator screen until they are 50 yards from the hole. Then the game is broadcast to a 2,000-square-foot customizable short game area that transforms between holes. TGL rules also include a shot clock, and the league plans to have players wear microphones during play. A seating area for 1,500 people has been created around the playing zone.

TGL was supposed to begin play in January, but the inaugural season was pushed back to 2025 after a power outage caused the dome of the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, to deflate. The necessary repairs led to the delay.

Eben Novy-Williams Participation in reporting.