💰 Rory McIlroy. The UK's First Sporting Billionaire?

This week, we explore one of the greatest athletes in our lifetime.

Rory McIlroy is on course to be an extremely prominent individual in the tech space. At just 34 years old his career earnings already sit north of £100m. That number will balloon over the coming years as he adds to his many endorsements and many golfing titles.

To add to this, his investment portfolio is starting to take very healthy shape. Quietly, Rory is building an extensive suite of investments which should take his career wealth into orbit.

TLP takes a deeper look.

A quick bio on Rory McIlroy:

1. One of the best golfers of our generation

2. One of the highest paid athletes in the world

3. Future billionaire

Two years ago the golf course management company Troon announced that they are going to take strategic investment from Symphony Ventures, the investment arm founded by Rory McIlroy.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed but initial research suggested that this could be a very shrewd move from Rory and his team.

Troon are a very important company in the world of golf. They manage more than 640 18-hole-equivalent golf courses around the world. They also own or lease more than 50 courses across the world.

When the NY Times asked Rory McIlroy why he set up Symphony Ventures, his answer was a simple one:

He is already on track to make a lot of money from his off-field investments.

The biggest, being TGL, a brand new Golf League starting in January 2024 founded by Rory himself and none other than Tiger Woods.

TGL is a televised golf league played indoors on a series of virtual screens. There will be six teams, with 3 PGA Tour players on each team. All players will be mic’d up and kitted out with wearables allowing for fan interaction throughout.

The interesting part is the ownership structure of the League. The cap table is broken down as follows:

• 54%: TMRW Sports (Rory, Tiger)

• 18%: The PGA Tour

• 18%: Franchise Owners

• 10%: Player Pool

Thats right, the PGA Tour has ownership in this league perhaps explaining largely explaining why Rory and Tiger were so anti-LIV last summer!

TLP will do a further deep-dive into the league in the coming weeks but until then we breakdown even more investing from Rory.

From 2020 to 2021 Symphony invested in several innovative companies. Many of which are health-tech organisations attached to golf.

🕰 A timeline of investments from Symphony Ventures

• July 2021: Puttery ~ Venture Round

Rory invested £7.2m in Drive Shack’s latest venture Puttery (a Top Golf alternative in the US). Rory will receive 10% ownership in each Puttery venue as they are opened in the United States.

• June 2021: LetsGetChecked ~ Series D

LetsGetChecked offers at-home tests including screenings for sexual health, cholesterol, diabetes, thyroid and COVID-19, as well as follow-up care through its telehealth and pharmacy app. Rory’s investment was undisclosed.

• May 2021: Kin Insurance ~ Series C

• April 2021: Kaia Health ~ Series C

• Feb 2021: PatientsLikeMe ~ Venture Round

PatientsLikeMe have one of the largest patient communities in the world. Members can put their disease experiences in context and find answers to their questions. Rory once more, invested in a health platform following a similar theme to his previous investments.

• June 2020: Kaia Health ~ Series B

Kaia Health offers an alternative to painkillers, using mobile technology. Again, Rory’s investment is undisclosed, but he is a big fan.

• May 2020: Golf Genius Software ~ Series A raising $5m

Rory’s first foray as a lead investor was in Golf Genius. Their flagship product GGTMS is the most widely used and fully featured golf tournament management system in the world.

Most of these investments have a common thesis. Golf-tech and health-tech. By doing this Rory has direct exposure to their products allowing for maximum marketing opportunities whilst he is in his golfing prime.

Symphony have no exits yet but are set to increase their number of investments over the next few years with a very good team at Rory’s disposal.

With all of this coming to fruition in the last few years alone you can see why Rory is easily on track to be the richest athlete in UK history.

He is set to play a key part in this weeks Ryder Cup taking place in Italy.

Stay tuned for more Ryder Cup content next week!