The last year has seen increasingly close collaboration between the world of sport and the realm of digital-first talent. The use of influencers in Paris 2024 Olympics coverage, Logan Paul’s fight with Mike Tyson and news that The Sidemen are going to take their charity match to Wembley are all symptomatic of this trend.
In the same way that esports has become integrated into the fabric of traditional sport, there is evidence that this blossoming partnership between sport and digital talent is now becoming formalised – rather than a series of eye-catching spectacles.
This week, for example, golf’s PGA Tour announced that it is expanding its one-off Creator Classic (launched in 2024 with Blackstone as sponsor) into a series of three Creator Series events.
The Creator Classic, which was held in August 2024, saw 16 of golf’s most high-profile YouTubers play a nine-hole tournament, with Luke Kwon (pictured) coming out on top. In the new iteration, 20 popular golf creators will participate across the three events, which will take place in different US venues on March 12, May 7 and August 20. This comes in addition to a new ‘Creator Council’ which the PGA Tour launched last year.
The rationale for the new venture is to reach younger audiences – and the results from the 2024 Creator Classic suggest the PGA Tour is on to something. Official Tour figures show that the Classic generated 2 million total views, and achieved 118,000 concurrent viewers at the event’s peak. The Tour’s most impactful YouTube video in 2024, it also helped achieve significant subscriber growth on the channel.
While the new digital-inspired series is not expected to generate much in the way on incremental revenue, there’s no question that it could play a key role in revitalising the PGA Tour brand and building a new audience base for golf. A modern-day reinterpretation of the ‘Pro-Am” concept, it’s highly likely that other professional sports will also seek to harness the growing impact of the global creator community.
The Creator Series is delivered by Pro Shop Studios, which was launched in 2024 by Chad Mumm, the producer of Netflix show Full Swing. The company commenced operations on April 1 and received $19.25m in Series A funding.
