SailGP Revenue Tops $200 Million as Team Valuations Reach $70 Million

SailGP has surpassed $200 million in annual revenue seven years after its launch, while individual team valuations have risen tenfold to $70 million over the past five years. The growth sets the global sailing championship apart from fledgling professional sports leagues that have struggled to last, including ventures such as the XFL and the rapidly collapsed Alliance of American Football.

The circuit, increasingly described as “Formula 1 on the water,” was founded in 2018 by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and championship yachtsman Sir Russell Coutts. It was designed to turn ocean racing, traditionally an elite and slow-paced sport, into a fast, standardized and commercially viable global property. National teams race close to shore in short, stadium-style events in major coastal cities, using identical F50 foiling catamarans so results depend on athletic skill and tactical execution rather than engineering budgets.

That format has attracted institutional capital and celebrity backing, particularly to the U.S. franchise. In late 2023, an investment group led by founding partner Ryan McKillen, Margaret McKillen and two-time world champion sailor Mike Buckley acquired the U.S. SailGP team. Buckley is now its team principal, CEO and co-owner.

The acquisition marked a turning point for the league’s franchise model. The U.S. team’s co-owners include Avenue Capital Group founder Marc Lasry, actress and producer Issa Rae, NFL wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, musician DJ Khaled, NFL linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux, entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, sports executive Carolyn Tisch Blodgett and fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger. International franchises have also drawn high-profile interest, with Ryan Reynolds and Anne Hathaway associated with SailGP’s broader ecosystem and its Paramount+ docuseries, *Uncharted*.

For Buckley and other executives, the league’s commercial performance reflects a change in how sailing is presented to corporate sponsors. Sponsorships in the sport historically depended heavily on philanthropy or luxury-brand associations. “When I started pitching any CEO or CMO that would take a meeting, probably five to eight years ago, I led with sustainability,” Buckley said. “I would just get laughed out of every room I went into because there has to be a business case.”

The F50s’ rigid vertical wing sails are designed like airplane wings, lifting the boats out of the water on hydrofoils and allowing them to approach 60 mph. Commercial shipping companies are experimenting with adapting vertical wing-sail designs to cargo vessels to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions, carrying technology developed for racing into global logistics.

The boats also generate data that has drawn interest from technology companies. Hundreds of sensors on each F50 transmit more than 30,000 data points per second, which are processed in real time through Oracle Cloud Infrastructure so teams can analyze performance instantly. Buckley said major artificial intelligence companies have approached SailGP for access to the datasets, believing information on fluid dynamics and environmental metrics could help optimize models in industrial sectors, including oil and gas.

Sustainability remains part of the league’s structure through a dual-championship model. Alongside the sporting championship, SailGP runs the “Impact League,” a world-first initiative in which teams are audited and scored on their environmental footprint, transition to clean energy and social-impact initiatives. The team that finishes atop the Impact League leaderboard at season’s end receives funding for its designated purpose partner.

Buckley has also backed efforts to widen access to a sport historically reserved for the wealthy. Raised by a single mother who worked three jobs, he discovered sailing as a teenager. The U.S. SailGP team has partnered with community organizations, including Hudson River Community Sailing, to give underserved young people in New York City hands-on sailing experience and academic credit.