Rick Shiels spent 13 years building trust on YouTube, but in January 2025, he risked it all after joining LIV Golf as an ambassador and content creator, attracting severe backlash. But that decision is now costing him. The British PGA golf professional, coach, and creator of Rick Shiels Golf is facing financial consequences from that same league.
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Just months after becoming golf’s first “View Billionaire” on YouTube this year, Shiels’ company is waiting for the money LIV owes it. According to LIV’s Chapter 11 filing in New Jersey, it owes Rick Shiels Media Ltd. $1.398.3 million under a “brand partnership agreement.” That puts Shiels 16th on LIV’s list of major creditors. His claim is higher than LIV players Caleb Surratt and Joaquin Niemann. But the league’s bankruptcy filing suggests it is highly unlikely the breakaway league will pay Shiels.
Apart from the aforementioned players, LIV owes over $1 million to at least 24 different parties. Jon Rahm is at the top of the list with about $7.4 million, while Lucas Herbert is around $1.01 million.
Shiels’ situation is ironic because he had been critical of LIV before joining the league. He had even said on his own podcast that LIV “wasn’t his cup of tea.” However, Shiels later told Today’s Golfer that talks about a deal had started “a couple of years” before the announcement. When Shiels finally joined LIV, the league’s players welcomed him, but his viewers weren’t happy and showed their displeasure on YouTube.
Shiels lost around 20,000 subscribers in the days after he announced the deal. His reported $10 million deal with LIV prompted much of the criticism. Some longtime viewers accused him of putting money ahead of the reputation he had built over more than a decade.
Shiels knew the announcement would bring criticism. Speaking to Golf Monthly, Shiels revealed that a day before the announcement, he spent an entire afternoon penning down every negative comment he thought people might make about him. He also defended the deal. He said the access LIV gave him was a major reason for joining. The partnership allowed him to create content with some of the biggest names in golf. He felt that opportunity was valuable for his channel, apart from the money involved.
Now, there is an uncomfortable twist to the story. Just months before LIV filed for bankruptcy, Shiels’ main YouTube channel passed one billion views, making him golf’s first-ever “view billionaire.” His wider media network had also reached over 1.1 billion views, 3.7 million subscribers, and over 150 million hours of watch time.
Shiels is also not the only person waiting for money from LIV Golf. The Chapter 11 filing lists over 1,000 creditors. The unpaid money goes beyond player contracts and media deals. Production company Fresh Tape Media filed a $1.23 million lawsuit in August over unpaid services dating back to January.
The size of LIV’s financial problems is also difficult to ignore. Since its launch in 2022, the league has spent over $5 billion trying to change professional golf. It attracted some of the sport’s biggest stars with huge contracts and signing bonuses. But Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund confirmed in April that it would stop funding LIV Golf after the 2026 season.
LIV’s bankruptcy filing lists total liabilities of around $1 billion, while its estimated assets are around $500 million. Compared with the league’s overall financial problems, Shiels’ $1.4 million claim is a small amount. But for him, it carries much more weight.
For a creator who spent more than a decade building his reputation on trust, it is an uncomfortable ending to one of the biggest decisions of his career.