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The GIST: Saudi Arabia is following up its World Cup win with another tournament play — this time, beginning talks with IMG to take over the Miami Open or Mutua Madrid Open. Prestigious 1000-level events like these have sold for several hundred million in the past, but that shouldn’t faze wealthy Saudi investors. Game, set, match.

The context: Saudi officials have been chatting up top tennis execs for over a year, resulting in major hosting wins in men’s tennis. The 2023 Next Gen ATP Finals are in Jeddah later this month, followed by two December exhibition matches, one of them featuring world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz.

• The country hasn’t been as lucky on the women’s side, but is hoping to change that. After a year-long push to host this month’s WTA Finals, Saudi Arabia ultimately lost to Cancun, Mexico at the last minute.

The critiques: Like soccer, recent Saudi interest in tennis has garnered criticism of the nation’s policies towards women and its criminalization of LGBTQ+ individuals. This pushback resulted in a canceled Visit Saudi campaign at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup (WWC) and ongoing opposition to its pursuit of a 2035 WWC bid.

The support: World No. 7 Ons Jabeur, No. 5 Jessica Pegula, and legend Billie Jean King believe bringing women’s tennis to the region could provide a host of benefits, including cultivating a culture for women’s sports. Athletes might also see larger prize pools, addressing pay concerns that have only been bolstered by recent WTA Finals conditions.

The trend: Saudi Arabia is snatching up every major sports opportunity imaginable, including a potential $5B investment in Indian cricket. It’s working on the men’s side with LIV Golf and the unrivaled 2034 WC bid, and international companies like the PGA and NBA are becoming more amenable to the Saudi cash influx. C.R.E.A.M.

The GIST: Although the UK saw declining viewership numbers in domestic soccer and cricket matches, British viewers were chuffed to watch international women’s sporting events as 2023 saw record audiences across several sports. Extraordinary every day.

⛳ Solheim Cup: The women’s golf tournament drew a record UK audience in 2023, including 9.5M hours viewed compared to the previous high of 6.3M hours in 2021. It was also the country’s largest average live audience for a women’s-only sports property on UK pay television this year.

⚽ WSL: The English women’s soccer league’s ten opening matches saw a 25.8% decline in viewing hours YoY amid a reduction in coverage. And while Sky’s average WSL audience declined 20.5% YoY, the BBC saw a slight annual increase due to the league’s second-most watched game ever: Arsenal vs. Aston Villa and its average audience of 746K.

🏏 The Hundred: While average audiences have fallen 15.5% since its first season, viewing hours have increased by 14.2% YoY. Even better, women cricketers saw their highest UK summer audiences on record: 7.4M viewers watched at least three minutes, and the Hundred tournament final set a domestic cricket record. Great googly moogly.

🏉 Red Roses: The UK women’s rugby series with Canada racked up 234K online views across Facebook and YouTube — even though no broadcaster aired the matches. For shame.

Zooming out: The next step is to cultivate and cater to a growing UK fan base year-round — that means more match broadcasts today, and a 24-hour women’s sports news cycle tomorrow. It’s about time, innit?

☔ WTA head Steve Simon admits WTA Finals in Cancun is “not a perfect event” amid myriad complaints.

🏎️ Thanks to F1’s rapid rise, Liberty Media saw record-setting Q3 numbers that resulted in a profit of $887M, a 24% YoY increase.

⚖️ FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of multiple fraud and conspiracy charges and now faces a maximum of 115 years in prison.

🇺🇸 The USWNT is expected to hire Chelsea manager Emma Hayes on a record contract in women’s soccer.

👟 The University of Cincinnati inked a major apparel deal with Nike to exclusively outfit its men’s and women’s basketball teams.

💼 ESPN promoted Chara-Lynn Aguiar to EVP, adding finance to her strategy and research responsibilities.

🐭 Disney will shell out approximately $8.61B for Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu, finally giving Disney full control of the streaming platform.

📈 Notable earnings call winners include Paramount’s 38% Q3 revenue increase YoY, Live Nation’s record quarter, and Apple’s outperforming Q4 that racked up $89.5B in revenue. Cha-ching.

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