Saudi Arabia’s gamble is starting to dry up like never before. In the heels of the PIF withdrawing its massive LIV Golf funding after a five-year financial whirlwind, a new report from Forbes makes the picture clear: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Saudi Vision 2030 is a reality far from being achieved for now. Meaning? Despite the Kingdom investing over $13.5 billion to bring top talents to spearhead a revolution and upend USA’s absolute monopoly over the world’s most profitable sports entities, the latter’s homegrown sports culture is hard to beat.

So, on one hand, you have Play The Game head, Stanis Elsborg, noting, “Backed by billions of dollars and a rapidly expanding network of sponsorships, partnerships, and strategic investments, the Kingdom’s ambitions have reshaped the sports world.

“Saudi Arabia’s ambitions in sport go far beyond winning games or hosting tournaments. They are part of a strategic effort to reshape the Kingdom’s global image while leveraging sport as a tool of geopolitical influence. Understanding this strategy is key to grasping what’s truly at stake.”

But, on the other hand, Forbes’ recent ‘The World’s 10 Highest-Paid Athletes 2026’ pushes us to some math. But before that, let’s look at the list we’re talking about:

In simple words, even though Ronaldo tops the list at a massive $300 million, out of which $235 million reportedly comes from his contract with Al-Nassr and $65 from endorsements and businesses, 7 of the 10 highest-paid athletes come from sports where America has a solid grip.

Yet, interestingly, Ronaldo, LIV Golf’s Jon Rahm, and Al-Hilal’s Karim Benzema’s collective wealth stands at a cool $681 million. Meanwhile, Lionel Messi, LeBron James, Shohei Ohtani, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant accounted for $633.9 million. But what’s leading to these US sports stars sweeping the list?

For starters, American homegrown sports like the NBA, NFL, and MLB operate on an organic, self-sustaining revenue stream backed by a sports-obsessed audience. Massive domestic media rights deals and billionaire private equity also make up a large portion of sports organizations’ financial foothold. Take the NFL, for example.

The league signed a massive $110 billion media rights deal spanning 11 years with CBS, ESPN/ABC, Fox, NBC, and Amazon, set to run through the 2033 season. As a direct benefit of the same, the NFL reportedly earns over $10 billion in revenue annually, with $2.7 billion coming from ESPN, $2.2 billion from Fox, $2.1 billion from CBS , $2 billion from NBC, and $1 billion from Amazon for Thursday Night Football.

Thanks to that, not only did players’ caps see an increase, but after the end of the 2024 fiscal year, each NFL team received $432.6 million from the league as part of their national revenue sharing process, as per ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. Now add to that, national sponsorships, ticket games, stadium operations, among others, and the figure is bound to get astronomical.

Similarly, the NBA is also currently on a similar media rights deal worth $76 billion, resulting in the national television revenue to increase threefold to $6.9 billion from its previous 9-year deal, which gave them $2.7 billion. Additionally, the $103 million that each franchise received for the 2024-2025 season from the NBA increased to $142.56 million for 2025-2026, a 39% increase. That directly translates into boosted earnings for players, too.

On top of it, American athletes also make huge money from branding and sponsorships. For example, Shohei Ohtani earned around $125 million from endorsements alone while making only about $2.6 million directly from playing baseball. That’s where the difference comes in.

Much of the Saudi’s money comes from the government-backed Public Investment Fund (PIF). As per Play The Game, Saudi Arabia’s “current sponsorship/funding in global sport (not including MOU investments)” stands at 910 sponsors. PIF controls assets worth around $925 billion and is funding many of Saudi Arabia’s sports projects around the world. Seven also come from the state-owned petroleum and natural gas company, Aramco.

As expected, football holds the most number of sponsorships at 194 followed by 123 for Boxing and 92 for Golf.

The PIF also took control of four of the biggest clubs in the Saudi Pro League, including Al-Ahli, Al-Ittihad, Al-Hilal, and Al-Nassr. The clubs spent more than £1 billion on transfer fees and player salaries. Big players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mane, Aymeric Laporte, Riyad Mahrez, Roberto Firmino, Ivan Toney, N’Golo Kanté, and Karim Benzema joined Saudi clubs as the league continued growing its global popularity.

However, Saudi Arabia is not only spending heavily on football but also on many other sports. The country also invested £3.5 billion into boxing projects, while the PIF-backed LIV Golf league already spent about £2.5 billion. Plus, Saudi companies are also putting a lot of money into Formula 1, cricket, tennis, MMA, and esports.

One major deal came from Saudi energy company Aramco, which signed a $600 million agreement with FIFA to become a major worldwide partner from 2024 to 2027. The deal helped Saudi Arabia build even stronger ties with global football and FIFA. Through this, they also got the opportunity to host the 2034 Men’s FIFA World Cup.

Plus, they are also planning to give fans the best experience possible. According to Saudi Arabia’s World Cup plans, 11 new stadiums could be built for the tournament. One of the biggest projects is part of the massive $20 billion Jeddah Central development project. Earlier this year, contracts worth $3.2 billion were awarded to help build a new stadium, an opera house, and an oceanarium there.

But who’s the brain behind all these major moves?

Crown and PIF chairman, Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Also helping run this sports expansion is Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF. According to the Play The Game report, Al-Rumayyan holds 22 major positions connected to Saudi Arabia’s growing sports empire. He is the Aramco’s chairman and also leads Ma’aden, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest mining companies.

Al-Rumayyan also plays a major role in international sports. He serves as chairman of Newcastle United, helped run LIV Golf before stepping down, and leads Riyadh Air which sponsors clubs and events like Atlético Madrid, the WTA Finals, and CONCACAF competitions.

But despite the plan of a massive development and spreading their investment in all the sports, Saudi Arabia is cancelling some of them from major sports that can take a massive hit on the leagues.

Saudi Arabia’s massive move to cancel investment in Golf

Saudi Arabia is now starting to slow down some of its sports spending. One of the biggest changes happened in golf as the PIF decided to stop funding LIV Golf after this season. PIF said the “substantial investment” needed for the project was “no longer consistent with the current phase of PIF’s investment strategy.”

LIV Golf started in 2021 and signed many famous golfers, including Jon Rahm. What’s even worse is that he left the PGA Tour to join the LIV Golf, but now, without Saudi Arabia’s support, the future of the league looks uncertain, and so does his.

On top of it, Saudi Arabia also reduced support in several other sports. The Saudi Arabia Masters snooker tournament got canceled after just two years of starting, despite its 10-year deal. Then the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) also lost Saudi funding, resulting in the WTA Finals leaving the country after the 2026 edition. Saudi Arabia further decided not to continue plans for hosting the 2035 Rugby World Cup and indefinitely postpone the 2029 Asian Winter Games slated to be held in a mountain resport in Saudi’s futuristic project NEOM.

In football, too, Saudi Arabia made another major change when the PIF sold a 70% stake in Saudi club Al Hilal. The fund explained that it wanted to “maximize returns and redeploy capital within the domestic economy.”

Saudi Arabia first used massive spending to become one of the biggest powers in global sports. It helped them bring famous athletes, host big events, and get global attention very fast. But now the country is becoming more careful and is focusing on projects that give better financial returns. So, relying on Saudi money has both good and bad sides. But the real question is: Is it worth the risk?