This year has been packed with major deal-making moments across the world of sport.
Bumper broadcast agreements came thick and fast, teams changed hands for record sums, and a surge of external investment pushed franchise valuations to new heights.
Sponsorship activity also flourished with new brands and familiar faces alike, while the calendar was littered with significant acquisitions and unprecedented hosting agreements.
Ahead of what promises to be a busy 2026, SportsPro revisits the biggest deals of the year, charting them month by month.
January
The year started with a bang when Venu Sports, the streaming joint venture between ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), disbanded. It came shortly after Disney agreed a deal to combine its Hulu + Live TV business with sports streaming service and channel aggregator Fubo, which had taken legal action against the Venu venture. The merger closed in October.
Also in the US, NWSL franchise valuations continued to rise, as Denver was awarded an expansion team for a whopping US$110 million fee. That number would rise again in November, when Arthur Blank’s AMB Sports + Entertainment secured the league’s 17th club for a reported US$165 million.
January also saw a pair of major hosting deals in the Middle East, including Abu Dhabi paying a reported US$25 million for the right to stage the EuroLeague Final Four, marking the first time the season-ending tournament had been played outside of Europe. Meanwhile, Visit Qatar put pen to paper on a deal with the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) to stage the new T100 Triathlon World Tour final for the next five years.
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February
The hotly anticipated auction of teams in the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) Hundred competition wildly surpassed expectations, with sales generating UK£520 million (US$692 million) and valuing the eight franchises at nearly UK£1 billion (US$1.3 billion). Six of the deals closed in July but it wasn’t until December that Mumbai Indians owner Reliance Industries confirmed its partnership with Surrey, renaming Oval Invincibles to MI London, while Cain International completed its purchase of a stake in the Trent Rockets in October.
Elsewhere, February brought confirmation of Saudi Arabia’s long-rumoured investment in DAZN through its SURJ Sports Investment arm. The partnership, which reportedly saw the PIF subsidiary pay US$1 billion for a minority stake, is centred around a new joint venture known as DAZN MENA.
Also in the sports media world, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) cashed in on the growing popularity of darts by securing a reported UK£125 million (US$166 million) extension of its broadcast partnership with Sky Sports, which will remain the home of the World Darts Championship in the UK and Ireland until 2030.
Meanwhile, there was good news for the International Olympic Committee IOC, which after seeing several partners depart the TOP programme following Paris 2024 unveiled Chinese electronics firm TCL as the newest addition to its highest sponsorship tier. That was swiftly followed by news of an early renewal with AB InBev before Allianz extended its partnership with the Olympic body in March.
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March
Continuing on the Olympic theme, one of Thomas Bach’s final acts as IOC president was to seal a US$3 billion media rights extension with NBC, the single biggest benefactor of the worldwide Olympic movement. The new deal ensures that the network and its digital platforms like Peacock will remain the US broadcast home of the Games until 2036, while it will also see the company play a bigger role in the delivery of the event.
In the UK, Six Nations Rugby renewed its agreements with public service broadcaster the BBC and commercial channel ITV, ending speculation that the tournament could move behind a paywall amid reported interested from TNT Sports.
March also brought confirmation of the blockbuster news that Uefa was ending its 35-year relationship with the Team Marketing agency, choosing instead to hand the global commercial rights for its men’s club competitions to US-based Relevent for six seasons from 2027/28. More to come on that later.
In what proved to be a busy month, a group led by William Chisholm won the race for the Boston Celtics in a deal valuing the NBA team at US$6.1 billion – which at the time was a record for a North American sports franchise. Outgoing controlling owner Wyc Grousbeck purchased the club for US$360 million in 2002.
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April
LaLiga’s decision to award its production and distribution contract to Host Broadcasting Services (HBS) sparked a feisty response from long-serving partner Mediapro, which swiftly rocked back on its claims that the process was ‘neither fair nor objective’.
There was also a very public spat brewing in British basketball. National governing body the British Basketball Federation (BBF) granted Marshall Glickman’s GBB League Limited (GBBL) a 15-year license in April to run the men’s top flight, which was the catalyst for legal action from Super League Basketball (SLB), resulting in another period of chaos for the sport in the UK.
There were fewer issues for the National Hockey League (NHL) and Rugby Australia (RA), both of which landed major TV deals this month. The North American ice hockey league signed off a 12-year, US$7.7 billion extension with Rogers, reportedly doubling its media rights revenue in Canada. RA, meanwhile, secured AUS$240 million (US$144 million) in its five-year domestic broadcast renewal with commercial network Nine.
On the sponsorship front, the ECB secured new partners for the England cricket team’s premium assets, with Toyota replacing Cinch as front-of-shirt sponsor and KP Snacks gaining visibility on the sleeve.
May
Arctos became the first private equity firm to own stakes in multiple National Football League (NFL) teams after buying eight per cent of the Los Angeles Chargers. The month also saw 20 per cent of equity in the Women’s National Basketball Association’s (WNBA) New York Liberty sold at a reported franchise valuation of US$450 million, a record for a women’s sports team.
Across the Atlantic, Uefa awarded the pan-European broadcast rights for the Women’s Champions League to streaming service Disney+. The platform replaces DAZN as the tournament’s primary broadcaster, marking Disney+’s biggest sports rights acquisition in Europe.
Prem Rugby and Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) renewed their domestic broadcast deals with TNT Sports. The five-year agreements are reportedly worth UK£200 million (US$266.5 million), representing an uplift on the previous cycle and reflecting growing viewership for the league.
Staying with rugby, New Zealand Rugby (NZR) confirmed Toyota as the All Blacks’ new training kit sponsor, replacing petrochemicals firm Ineos. Ineos ended its deal early, with Toyota then agreeing a multimillion-dollar contract to take over part of the inventory.
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June
The Buss family agreed to sell the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers to Mark Walter at a record sports team valuation of US$10 billion. The outgoing owners originally paid US$6.75 million for the franchise back in 1979. The blockbuster sale of the Laker received league approval in October.
Honda was named a founding partner of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, making it the first brand to join the event’s top sponsorship tier in nearly four years. While financial terms weren’t disclosed, top-tier deals are reportedly worth around US$200 million. Honda will also retain naming rights for the Honda Center venue, which is hosting Olympic volleyball.
Commercial broadcaster RTL agreed to acquire Sky Deutschland from Comcast in a deal worth at least €150 million (US$175 million). The move creates a new German broadcasting powerhouse, combining RTL’s wide channel portfolio with Sky’s extensive sports rights, including the Bundesliga.
The Premier League extended its MENA rights deal with BeIN Sports, before bagging a new Australian broadcast partner, with Nine acquiring the rights as part of an agreement with telecommunications operator Optus.
The WNBA closed out the month by announcing it will expand to 18 teams. Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia will begin play in 2028, 2029 and 2030 respectively, with each franchise reportedly paying an expansion fee of US$250 million – a record for the league.
July
Liberty Media completed its €4.2 billion (US$4.9 billion) acquisition of MotoGP commercial rights holder Dorna Sports. The deal closes 15 months after it was first announced, placing the owners of Formula One in control of the global motorcycling series.
Manchester City agreed a ten-year extension for their kit manufacturing deal with Puma. The renewal is reportedly valued at UK£100 million (US$133 million) per season, making it the most lucrative agreement of its kind for any Premier League club.
In Saudi Arabia, there were several noteworthy deals. Saudi Pro League (SPL) side Al Kholood became the first team to be acquired by foreign investors after a takeover by Harburg Group. The Public Investment Fund (PIF), meanwhile, invested in the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) as part of its latest funding round. The PTO raised US$40 million in total, with existing investors Cordillera Investment Partners and Sir Michael Moritz participating, and Verance Capital joining the PIF as new backers.
August
A series of mega moves took place in the US, beginning with Skydance completing its US$8 billion merger with Paramount Global. The deal hands Skydance, led by David Ellison, ownership of CBS Sports and the Paramount+ streaming service.
Days later, the new leadership at Paramount acquired the exclusive US rights to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The seven-year contract, worth US$1.1 billion annually, took all of the mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion’s events off pay-per-view (PPV), with Paramount+ to stream every fight.
ESPN, which lost the UFC, would finalise a deal to acquire several of the NFL’s media assets, including the NFL Network and the rights to the RedZone whiparound show, in exchange for giving the league a ten per cent stake in the broadcaster. ESPN also scooped up the rights for all WWE premium live events (PLEs), with both agreements done ahead of the launch of its direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming service on 21st August.
Over in Europe, Red Bull completed its takeover of English rugby union club Newcastle Falcons. The month also saw the Bundesliga revamp its UK broadcast strategy, with YouTuber Mark Goldbridge, the Overlap YouTube channel, the BBC and Amazon Prime Video all picking up live game rights.
September
There were more stake sales in NFL franchises as billionaire Julia Koch agreed to take a reported ten per cent share in the New York Giants at a record valuation of more than US$10 billion. The New England Patriots also sold a reported eight per cent stake to private equity giant Sixth Street and billionaire Dean Metropoulos at a valuation in excess of US$9 billion.
Elsewhere in the US major leagues, Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon entered into a formal agreement to buy the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers in a deal expected to close in March 2026. The Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Rams also welcomed Visit Rwanda as a partner, marking the first time an African tourism brand has partnered with teams in the NBA and NFL.
In India, the BCCI moved quickly to secure a new lead sponsor after cutting short its contract with Dream11 amid tighter regulations in the country, bringing in Apollo Tyres in a deal reportedly worth ₹579.06 crore (US$66 million).
The month ended with Electronic Arts (EA) announcing it was going private after a consortium comprising Silver Lake, Affinity Partners and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) made an all-cash offer valuing the video game giant at US$55 billion. It will be the largest leveraged takeover in US history.
October
After much speculation, Apple was confirmed as the exclusive broadcaster of Formula One in the US from 2026 on a five-year deal reportedly worth US$150 million a season. The agreement is a significant uplift on the series’ current pact with ESPN, which is worth about US$90 million annually.
Saudi Arabia strengthened its position as a major destination for tennis when SURJ Sports Investment, a subsidiary of PIF, won the rights to host a new Masters 1000 tournament on the ATP Tour. It means the Gulf state becomes the first country from the Middle East to host a Masters 1000 event.
On the sponsorship front, Spanish soccer heavyweights Barcelona extended their shirt and stadium naming rights deal with Spotify, which will now run until 2030 and 2034 respectively. It has been reported that the total value of the deal could reach as much as €460 million (US$533 million).
The year was also a busy one for the LA 2028 Olympic and Paralympic organising committee, with Google signing up as a founding partner this month. The tech giant will provide organisers with cloud and AI tools to support backend operations and fan-facing experiences.
November
Three major broadcast deals headlined November.
MLB penned three-year domestic contracts with ESPN, Netflix and NBC, with the league’s MLB.TV streaming service being integrated into ESPN’s DTC platform. The deals, which expire in 2028 and will reportedly average nearly US$800 million per year, are a short-term restructure of MLB’s media arrangements following ESPN’s decision to exit its previous contract three years early.
The ink had barely dried on the MLB contract when it was revealed that Paramount+ would broadcast the majority of the Uefa Champions League in the UK from 2027 to 2031, with Amazon Prime renewing its package of first pick Tuesday night games and Sky Sports taking over responsibilities for the Uefa Europa League and Uefa Conference League. SportsPro understands the combined deals are worth UK£2.2 billion (US$2.9 billion).
Finally, LaLiga netted a six per cent increase in the value of its domestic media contracts, with Telefonica and DAZN retaining rights for the league’s next five-year cycle. It means the Spanish top flight’s new deals are worth more than €5.25 billion (US$6.08 billion), which is at least €300 million (US$347.4 million) more than its current arrangements.
December
December marks the start of the PDC World Darts Championship, with the organisation tying down Paddy Power as the event’s title sponsor and confirming that the tournament will remain at Alexandra Palace until 2031.
Fanatics landed the contract to operate stadium and fan festival retail experiences at the 2026 Fifa World Cup, an operation the company describes as one of the largest and most complex retail undertakings in sports history.
The University of Utah is finalising a deal that would make it the first college to accept private equity investment in its collegiate sports teams. Meanwhile, the Big 12 is also in talks with Collegiate Athletic Solutions (CAS), a fund operated by RedBird Capital Partners and Weatherford Capital, on a deal that could provide its schools with up to US$500 million.
One seismic deal still unresolved at the time of writing was the proposed takeover of WBD. Netflix had agreed to acquire the media conglomerate’s studio and streaming business for US$82.7 billion, only for Paramount Skydance to submit a hostile US$108.4 billion bid days later. Netflix said Paramount’s move was “entirely expected” and that it remained unconcerned by the development.
OTHER DEAL HIGHLIGHTS
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