Competitive Strategy Lessons from the LIV Golf and PGA Tour Merger
Episode description
In June 2022, the first ever LIV Golf event teed off outside of London. Offering players larger prizes and more flexibility, LIV Golf aimed to disrupt the sport.
In response, the PGA Tour suspended all players who participated in the LIV Golf event, escalating tensions between the two entities. This conflict culminated in LIV Golf filing an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. Then, in a surprising turn of events, the two tours announced their merger in June 2023.
University of Virginia associate professor Alexander MacKay discusses the competitive and regulatory issues at stake and whether or not the PGA Tour took the right actions in response to LIV Golf’s entry in his case, “LIV Golf.” In this episode, he explores how a dominant organization like the PGA Tour can respond to challenges from innovative competitors. He also shares lessons from the PGA Tour’s response to LIV Golf’s market entrance and explains when it makes more sense to treat a competitor as a partner rather than an adversary.
Key episode topics include: strategy, business management, antitrust laws, disruptive innovation, professional sports industry, media, entertainment, and professional sports, golf, merger.
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- Listen to the original HBR Cold Call episode: The PGA Tour and LIV Golf Merger: Competition Vs. Cooperation (2023)
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