Liberty Media acquires the world’s premier motorcycle racing tournament, MotoGP

American company Liberty Media, whose most notable asset is the commercial rights to the world’s most popular racing series, Formula 1, will soon expand its control over the world of racing. According to the Financial Times, the owners of Liberty Media have agreed with the Spanish structure Dorna to purchase the rights to the main motorsports tournament – MotoGP. The acquisition will cost the Americans more than €4 billion. This is one of the largest transactions in the history of sports.

The American company Liberty Media, which owns the commercial rights to the world’s most popular racing series, Formula 1, has reached an agreement to expand its racing portfolio. According to the publication Financial Times, the management of Liberty Media agreed with the Dorna company, which controls the commercial rights of the world’s main motorcycle racing series MotoGP, to sell it to American businessmen. The transaction value is estimated at €4 billion.

MotoGP, controlled by Dorna, at first glance, is not such an attractive asset (however, the financial stability of the structure may be evidenced by the fact that one of the company’s key shareholders is the Government Pension Fund of Canada, which is subject to very strict investment standards). According to the Financial Times, the total income generated by the series in 2023 was only €483 million. For comparison, Formula 1 generated almost €3 billion for the same reporting period.

MotoGP is the de facto two-wheeled analogue of Formula 1 (in Russia this type is called road-circuit motorcycle racing).

Moreover, in addition to the elite series, in which riders compete on motorcycles equipped with liter engines, which gives them monstrous specific power (the minimum permissible weight of a motorcycle is 157 kg, and engine power usually reaches 300 hp), there are two more “junior” gasoline class and one electric, not to mention various kinds of “side dish” races. In total, more than 200 races are held in the MotoGP championship, which often takes place on the same circuits as the Formula 1 stages, per season. MotoGP can boast of unconditionally world-class stars. The most famous driver is, perhaps, the Italian Valentino Rossi, who dominated the series throughout the first decade of the century (the Italian has seven championship titles to his name). The second decade passed under the sign of Spanish “rule” – during it, Marc Marquez became champion six times. The current title holder is again Italian – Francesco Bagnaia.

It is not surprising that there has never been a shortage of people willing to invest in motorcycle racing. In particular, negotiations on the acquisition of MotoGP were conducted by two structures that have long established themselves in the sports industry. This is the TKO company, which controls the most popular mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion – UFC, as well as WWE, which deals with wrestling, an extremely popular genre in America at the intersection of sports and circus shows. The Qatar Sports Investments fund, which owns one of the giants of world football, PSG, also applied for the purchase.

Liberty Media has real experience in developing racing projects and increasing their financial efficiency. The Americans bought the rights to Formula 1 in 2017.

In total, it cost them $8 billion. At that time, the total income generated by the series did not exceed €1.7 billion per year. But in less than a decade, according to the Financial Times, new managers have almost doubled revenues, including by increasing the number of races held. This season it is planned to hold a record 24 stages (in 2017, Formula 1 was limited to 20 races). At the same time, according to various estimates, the current value of Formula 1 is already more than $20 billion. So, back in January last year Bloomberg reported that Liberty Media rejected Saudi Arabia’s $20 billion offer to sell Formula 1.

However, there is also a factor that may prevent the deal from being fully implemented. After all, the previous owner of Formula 1 commercial rights, the investment fund CVC, owned the rights to MotoGP before buying the four-wheeled series. However, CVC failed to combine Formula 1 and elite motorcycle racing. The leadership of the European Commission considered this prospect a violation of antimonopoly regulations. As a result, CVC had to sell MotoGP – with, it must be said, a significant profit. CVC gained control over the series back in 1998, paying about $86 million (€79 million) for it. And in 2006, MotoGP was sold to its current owners for almost €400 million.

Alexander Petrov