How Liberty Media became one of the world’s most valuable sports empires

When Liberty Media Chairman John Malone finalized the $4.4 billion acquisition of Formulation One in 2017, he knew he was onto one thing.

“There’s a possibility to take F1 to a different degree,” he advised reporters in 2016. “There’s an untapped digital market [that] F1 has solely scratched the floor on.” 

What no-one might have foreseen was how quickly F1’s alternative would current itself. As international lockdowns started in 2020, sports activities followers surged on-line and Liberty Media had an opportunity to comprehend Malone’s imaginative and prescient. 

For it to work nonetheless, Liberty first needed to get a deal with on the game’s funds.

“In case you have a glance earlier than Covid in 2019 it was a tricky state of affairs, near chapter,” mentioned Fred Vasseur, crew principal of Scuderia Ferrari HP, one among three groups spending greater than $400 million a season to stay in rivalry for the Constructors’ Championship.

This not solely priced out members resembling Honda, however created an enormous disparity on the grid. Whereas the highest three groups — Ferrari, Crimson Bull, and Mercedes AMG — had been outspending everybody else, they had been additionally receiving disproportionate TV rights and prize-money, leaving the remainder to scrap it out for funding.

With some groups getting ready to monetary collapse, Liberty took an ax to F1’s construction.

“Heritage bonuses” for the oldest groups had been curbed, and a extra equitable broadcast break up devised. With funding underneath management, they outlined plans to restrict spending.

“Now [we] have a value cap in place,” Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing, advised CNBC’s “Inside Monitor.”

“It is a a lot smaller spend than it was beforehand, which has allowed all 10 groups to actually type of play with the identical measurement bat.”

Night out the sector created extra thrilling story strains, which Netflix seized on. The timing was excellent. Because the world entered Covid lockdowns, Netflix dropped the second sequence of “Drive to Survive,” introducing legions of latest followers to a sport outlined extra by the personalities and drama than the tinkering occurring behind storage doorways.

“I used to suppose it is crucial factor that is occurred in motorsport for 40 years, now I feel it is crucial factor that is occurred in sport in 40 years,” Stuart Pringle, managing director at race circuit Silverstone, advised CNBC.

As reported beforehand, the “Netflix impact” was just one a part of the “untapped digital market” that Malone had envisioned, with followers following F1 creators on-line and racing round digital tracks on the franchise’s official online game.

Recognizing the strategic significance of those channels, Liberty invested closely in F1’s digital ecosystem.

“We would have liked new varieties of company companions within the sport,” mentioned Brown. “The Googles, the Coca-Colas, the Dells, who haven’t traditionally been within the sport.”

To attract them in nonetheless, F1 would wish greater than a digital fanbase.

Liberty set about investing closely within the U.S. because the pandemic eased, including the Miami Grand Prix to the 2022 calendar and bringing the entire variety of American races to 2 (alongside Austin).

However to crack America, F1 wanted a spectacle, and the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix would supply it. Costing a reported $600 million to placed on, the race weekend introduced 315,000 guests to city, making a backlog of personal jets throughout town’s airports.

“The explanation why we invested in Vegas was as a result of we understood instantly the potential of the American market,” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali advised CNBC.

The technique paid off. Sponsorship offers doubled in worth after the Vegas Grand Prix, as big U.S. companies poured into the game. Main offers with manufacturers resembling American Specific put F1 in entrance of a profitable new fanbase, whereas partnerships with Hilton and Virgin Resorts helped construct the game’s globe-trotting attraction.

Since Liberty Media acquired F1 in 2017, the game’s worth has doubled from $8 billion (together with money owed) to round $17 billion in 2023. However headwinds are beginning to blow. A spat between Liberty and American motorsports big Andretti World over their entry to the grid is popping ugly, whereas the game’s globe-spanning calendar might put sustainability targets out of attain. 

Coming by them unscathed would require the identical imaginative and prescient and adaptableness that led Forbes to crown Liberty Media because the world’s most dear “sports activities empire.”

With new race guidelines coming into impact in 2026, anticipate extra drama off the observe as F1 prepares to defend its crown.