The Public Investment Fund’s growing sports portfolio
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has become one of the world’s most powerful sports investors, influencing everything from football and combat sports to e-sports and tennis.
Photo: Pacific Press, Ian MacNicol, Yasser Bakhsh, Clive Brunskill/Getty Images. Illustration: Play the Game
In November 2024, Saudi Arabia hosted its most prestigious tennis event to date – the WTA Finals, the flagship event for the Women’s Tennis Association.
The tournament took place in Riyadh and featured eight of the world’s top singles and doubles players vying for the year-end championship.
Beyond the significance of the event itself, the tournament also underscored the growing influence in sport of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Kingdom’s state-owned sovereign wealth fund which is responsible for the lion’s share of Saudi’s sports investments.
According to Play the Game's research, the PIF including its subsidiaries has secured at least 346 sponsorships across global sports, including the WTA Finals, where the PIF’s logo was present throughout the tournament, both on the grounds and on the advertising boards during the matches.
Serving up influence
Throughout 2024, Saudi Arabia has made its ambitions in the tennis world clear. The Kingdom brought in Spanish legend Rafael Nadal as an ambassador to the Saudi Tennis Federation; PIF entered strategic partnerships with both the WTA and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP); and the Kingdom hosted the Six Kings Slam exhibition tournament as part of the Riyadh Season festival in October 2024.
However, the most significant tennis event held in Saudi to date was the 2024 WTA Finals, where the Kingdom used the appeal of tennis as a popular women’s sport to support its claims that it has reformed women’s rights.
When the American tennis player Coco Gauff won the event, she claimed the tournament would inspire young Saudi girls to believe “their dreams are possible.”
Despite this narrative, women in Saudi Arabia continue to face oppression as male guardianship laws are still in place while women’s rights activists like Manahel al-Otaibi are currently imprisoned for advocating for rights that the Kingdom asserts it has already granted women.
"I feel terrible to see my sister is in a prison, and the other women from outside came to play [tennis]," al-Otaibi's sister told ABC Australia.
Coco Gauff playing at the WTA Finals in Riyadh sponsored by the PIF and the state-owned flag carrier Riyadh Air.
The power of football
Football is a pivotal component of Saudi Arabia’s sports strategy as the sport is a beloved national pastime across generations. Much of Saudi’s football investments are generated through the PIF.
One of the PIF’s first investments in football was its acquisition of English Premier League club Newcastle United in October 2021. At the time, the Premier League justified the Saudi-led takeover after receiving “legally binding assurances” that the Kingdom would not control the club, even though the PIF happens to be the primary investment arm of the Saudi state and chaired by the Kingdom’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Since the takeover of Newcastle United, the Kingdom has made several new sponsorship deals between the club and state-owned entities like Sela, Noon, Saudia, and Saudi Telecom Company.
In June 2023, the PIF took ownership of four Saudi Pro League clubs: Al-Ahli, Al-Ittihad, Al-Hilal, and Al-Nassr. Simultaneously, four other clubs transitioned into the hands of state-owned entities like the Royal Commission for Al-Ula, Diriyah Gate Development Authority, Neom, and Aramco.
Between them these clubs have signed some of the biggest names in the sport, including Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Neymar with extraordinary deals that could be worth more than 1 billion US dollars in wages for 20 foreign players.
Saudi’s use of football for soft power was further on display in August 2024, when the PIF announced a multi-year partnership with the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf). The deal, which according to the press release builds on a “shared ambition to grow football at every level of the game”, includes sponsorships of the men’s and women’s Concacaf Champions Cups and the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup.
Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
Millions for prizes in golf
While the PIF is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, it is governed by Yasir Al-Rumayyan, one of the most powerful figures in the Saudi regime. Al-Rumayyan, who also chairs the oil giant Aramco, leads the Saudi Golf Federation, Golf Saudi, and LIV Golf – each a crucial part of Saudi Arabia's growing influence in the global golf industry.
Both the PIF and Aramco overlap as sponsors of many of the same golf events: Saudi Open presented by PIF, PIF Saudi International, the Aramco Team Series, and the Aramco Saudi Ladies International.
The latter two events are both sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour and each boasts a prize fund of 5 million US dollars, which underscores the financial weight behind Saudi Arabia’s presence in golf.
Subsidiaries also sponsor sports
Saudi Arabia also utilises its PIF subsidiaries, such as the Saudi Telecom Company, which has invested in combat sports, e-sports, and the Six Kings Slam tennis exhibition.
Another example is the Saudi National Bank that sponsors a wide range of events and institutions, including the Saudi Arabian football federation, the PIF Saudi International golf tournament, and the FIFA Series 2024 held in Saudi Arabia.
According to a Human Rights Watch report on the PIF, much of the fund’s influence is wielded directly by Mohammed Bin Salman. The crown prince has overhauled the PIF’s governance framework in a way that enables him to unilaterally direct state wealth to the megaprojects he personally favours, rather than investments which benefit the Saudi people.
The report also revealed the extent of the PIF’s investments in sports, referring to them as a “cornerstone of Saudi Arabia’s influence operations abroad.”
The sheer scale of the PIF’s investments signals that there appears to be no limit to its ambition to become a global sports powerhouse.
The Public Investment Funds’ total number of sponsorships: 346
PIF serves as the driving force behind Saudi Arabia’s sports strategy. While PIF itself sponsors a wide range of sports, it has also leveraged its many subsidiaries to amplify its influence. Below is an overview of some of PIF's most significant subsidiaries and the number of sponsorships they hold in the world of sports.