F1 owners, Liberty Media is said to be nearing the conclusion to buying MotoGP from the current rights owner, Dorna for more than €4 billion (RM20.5 billion).
The Financial Times reported that both Liberty Media and Dorna are in exclusive talks to unit the worlds’ premier car and motorcycle racing championships under one umbrella.
Liberty had won out against other bids including one from TKO who owns UFC and WWE. There was another another bid from the Qatar Sports Investments who owns the Paris-Saint Germain football club, who held talks with Bridgepoint.
Bridgepoint, along with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board are the shareholders of Dorna, in which Carmelo Ezpeleta works as the CEO. Dorna owns not only MotoGP, but also MotoE and World Superbike.
However, the deal will be scrutinised by competition regulators should it come to pass. The European Union has a competition law in place to prevent companies from creating cartels and monopolies. (Malaysia has the The Malaysian Competition Act, 2010 which came into force on 1 January 2012, but no one seems to enforce it.)
A silver lining for MotoGP perhaps is that Liberty Media have helped with F1’s growth since taking over from CVC Capital Partners 2017.
Some of their programs include the Netflix series ‘Drive To Survive’ which grew the sport’s fanbase further, besides acknowledging and using the power of social media. The F1 calendar has also grown under to include races in Las Vegas, Miami, Jeddah and Doha.
The Financial Times reports that F1’s operating profit in 2023 was USD392 million (RM1.85 billion), a 64% growth from 2022. Revenue grew from USD2.5 billion (RM11.84 billion) to USD3.2 billion (RM15.15 billion).
By contrast, Dorna’s revenue was €483 million (approximately RM2.5 billion) in 2023.
