F1 OWNERS LIBERTY MEDIA CLOSE TO BUYING MOTOGP IN EYE-WATERING £3.5BN DEAL

Formula 1 owner Liberty Media is closing in on an eye-watering £3.5bn deal to buy MotoGP 's parent company.

Liberty is in exclusive talks with Dorna Sports over the potential purchase, reports the Financial Times. However, any deal that is struck is likely to face regulatory scrutiny due to European Union competition rules.

Owning both F1 and MotoGP, the world's premiere single-seater and motorbike motorsport categories respectively, could run the risk of violating those regulations. Previous F1 owner CVC Capital Partners was once also in charge of MotoGP, but was forced to sell off the latter in 2006.

CVC sold F1's commercial rights to Liberty Media in 2017 in a deal worth around £6.5bn. Now, they are looking to reunite the two categories with a deal to buy several motorcycle racing series through their potential purchase of Dorna.

Alongside MotoGP, the Madrid-based firm promotes the Superbike World Championship, the all-electric MotoE series and several other junior categories. It organises around 250 races per year across them all.

Liberty has reportedly seen off all its competition to be the last potential buyer standing. Qatar Sports Investments, which owns French football giants Paris Saint-Germain, was one of the parties that held talks, as did TKO Holdings, which runs the WWE and UFC fighting sports championships.

But competition lawyer James Killick told the FT that he would be "very surprised" if regulators did not closely scrutinise any deal that is struck for Liberty to purchase Dorna. "The question is, has the market changed [since CVC owned both championships]?" he questioned.

F1 was haemorrhaging money before Liberty bought the commercial rights, but has become a financial powerhouse since. Its global popularity has enjoyed a huge boost, thanks in no small part to the success of the Netflix Drive to Survive series, and the sport now has an estimated one billion fans worldwide.

The increased interest in the series has given F1 the opportunity to charge much more for broadcast rights and fees from race organisers which are paid annually for the privilege of hosting an event. Those income streams, along with sponsorship and merchandising, are key sources of revenue.

MotoGP operates with a similar business model but has not managed to achieve the same level of success. Its own docu-drama series, MotoGP Unlimited, which streams on Amazon Prime Video, has not had the same effect in terms of capturing the attention of a huge new audience.

2024-03-28T11:50:50Z dg43tfdfdgfd