TMRW Sports is beginning to take shape, backed by a veritable who’s who of sports, tech, and entertainment industry backers.
TMRW Sports is the new sports entertainment venture founded by golfers Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, and sports media executive Mike McCarley. The company officially launched in August, with former NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol as an initial investor.
On Wednesday, the company announced a slate of dozens of new investors from the sports, entertainment and technology worlds.
Among the institutional investors are Connect Ventures, a joint venture between talent agency CAA and VC firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA), as well as 25madison, a VC firm backed by Apollo Global Management.
But the investors also include a wide array of boldface names, including actor and musician Justin Timberlake, tennis superstar Serena Williams, Formula 1 racer Lewis Hamilton, former NFL quarterback and current CBS analyst Tony Romo, gamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, baseball star Shohei Ohtani and hockey star Sidney Crosby.
Other investors include Fenway Sports Group owner John Henry and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
TMRW Sports’ first project is TGL, a “tech-infused” golf league (in partnership with the PGA Tour) that will air live competitions on Monday nights beginning in January 2024. Woods and McIlroy are committed to compete in the 15-match first season.
“Over the past year we’ve assembled a team of investors who will help deliver on the TMRW Sports’ mission to positively impact how sports are experienced in the future. And we’ve been intentional about diversity of expertise, thought and backgrounds as we mobilized this strategic group co-led by Connect Ventures and 25madison Ventures,” said McCarley in a statement. “From the very beginning our plan has been to partner with the best-in-class in every way imaginable and Tiger, Rory, and I value the support of this unrivaled team of investors, advisors, and ambassadors who believe in our vision to harness technology to create progressive approaches to sports. Their combined broad reach and cultural relevance will expand potential opportunities and fanbases for TMRW projects. Plus, many share a passion for golf that only adds more fuel to TGL, our first project in partnership with the PGA TOUR.”