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NBL announced Sharpie as its Official Marker - The partnership will see Sharpie connect with fans across the Hungry Jack’s NBL27 season, focusing on community moments and bringing supporters closer to their favourite players through autograph opportunities, in-game activations and creative fan experiences
NFL welcomed The Sporting Globe Bar & Grill as its Official Sports Bar Partner in Australia - The multi-year partnership makes The Sporting Globe the home of NFL fandom across the country, spanning the historic NFL Melbourne game, season-long activations in its bars nationwide, plus official Super Bowl LXI party venue status in Australia
NFL inked a new multi-year deal with Dan Murphy’s which will leverage its new partnership with a ‘Dan’s Tailgate Bar & Grill/ activation at Melbourne Park Kickoff Festival, in-store pop-ups and money can’t buy experiences
NFL partnered with Melbourne-born Nana Judy to launch an exclusive NFL collection to mark the historic NFL Melbourne Game
Western Bulldogs announced a 2-year partnership extension with CoinSpot which will see the cryptocurrency exchange remain as a principal partner of the AFL team and a co-major partner of the AFLW team
Collingwood FC and CyberCX (part of Accenture) expanded their multi-year partnership which will see CyberCX become the ‘Coaches Partner’ for the AFLW team
Brisbane Lions and Hyundai Australia extended their long-standing partnership for a further 3 seasons - As part of the renewed agreement, the Hyundai logo will continue to feature on the upper back of the men’s guernsey, and the automotive company has expanded its investment across the Club’s women’s program
GWS Giants AFLW secured a new partnership with leading Australian life insurer TAL which signed on as a major partner for the next three AFL Women’s seasons - its logo will feature on the playing and training shorts
Rugby Australia and the Queensland Government unveiled a multi-year partnership which will see Queensland Country Bank Stadium host Wallabies Test matches against Argentina in 2027 and 2030, and Georgia in 2029
Perth Scorchers welcomed Budget Car and Truck Rental as an Official Partner which will feature on the playing pants - the rental car & truck company also signed a new deal with the Hobart Hurricanes and its branding will feature on the sleeve of the playing jerseys across both the WBBL and BBL competitions
Hoops Capital (Owner of the Championship winning Sydney Kings and new-look Sydney Flames) announced that Harvey Norman has returned as a major sponsor for the upcoming season
Perth Lynx and Rio Tinto strengthened their long-standing relationship, signing a new 3-year agreement that will see the mining giant continue as a Major Partner of the club through to the end of the 2028/29 WNBL season
Adelaide 36ers secured a 2-season partnership extension with Good Drinks Australia which will retain the naming rights to the popular Coors Cold Club hospitality offering while becoming the naming rights partner of the club’s premium Legends Room, which will now be known as the Matso’s Legends Room
Cricket Australia extended its 80+ year partnership Kookaburra Sport to the end of the 2025/26 season which will remain the official supplier of key equipment including but not limited to the iconic Baggy Green caps and cricket balls for all national competitions and programs
National Pickleball League and Leapmotor Australia announced the expansion of their partnership three months after Leapmotor became the first Official Automotive Partner in the history of Australian pickleball
A suite of VenuesNSW stadiums including Accor Stadium, CommBank Stadium, McDonald Jones Stadium and WIN Sports & Entertainment Centre announced new partnerships with LION, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Diageo, Suntory Global Spirits & FELLR
Melbourne Racing Club revealed Catanach’s Jewellers as the Official Heritage Partner of its MRC150 celebration
South Australian Motor Sport Board announced Simba Car Hire renewed its partnership of the bp Adelaide Grand Final for 2 more years
Canva, one of Australia's most successful tech companies and the world's leading visual communication platform, became the official Creative Partner of Como 1907, an Italian Serie A professional football club
Melbourne Storm completed an $80 million sell-off to EQT - members of the Swedish private-equity firm will join members of Storm's ownership group on the Board of Directors and Matt Tripp will remain Chairman of the Club
AFL launched ‘Wagtales’ - a new animated children's series on YouTube designed to introduce young audiences to the game through storytelling, fun and adventure
Hard Rated launched a national campaign for its new flavour, Orange Passionfruit Zero Sugar 4.5% (via The Gifted Group, Clemenger BBDO, 1House, PHD and Mindshare) which includes a series of AFL vs NRL creator-led challenges between Dan Gorringe and Cooper & Matty Johns to determine which football code boasts the most passionate fan
The San Francisco 49ers Gold Rush Cheerleaders announced they’re attempting to break the world record for the largest cheerleading dance (current record to beat is 1,371 participants) during NFL Melbourne game week at Fed Square
Y Series, the Official Wine Sponsor of the NFL in Australia and New Zealand, launched a limited-edition NFL wine collection (incuProsecco Pinot Grigio, Lighter Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc Riesling, Pinot Noir and Shiraz) to mark the historic 2026 NFL Melbourne
LeBron James launched a new golf-themed YouTube channel - The venture follows his growing interest in golf and his goal of making the sport more accessible to kids from underserved communities
Andrew Bogut made a strategic investment in athlete intelligence platform Athoz as the company pushes into Australia’s biggest professional sporting leagues - it’s already signed agreements with multiple organisations across the AFL, NRL and NBL
Australia has 6.3 million active surfers, 7.3 million surfing fans and a surfing economy worth an estimated $2.71 billion annually.
Yet despite surfing being deeply embedded in Australian culture, its domestic commercial footprint remains relatively small.
A new competition thinks that represents an enormous opportunity.
Yesterday, the Surfing Super League officially launched as Australia’s first professional domestic surfing league, with ambitions to turn one of the country’s largest participation sports into a major commercial sports property.
And the model behind it tells us something broader about where Australian sport is heading.
A new kind of surfing competition
The Surfing Super League has been founded by former Surfing Australia CEO and Red Bull executive Chris Mater, who led Surfing Australia for seven years before departing in October 2025.
Key competition details:
Season 1 begins in Summer 2028
Eight franchise teams compete in a 90-minute, team-based format across eight weekends each summer on Australia’s East Coast
The regular season runs seven rounds, with the top four teams progressing to a Grand Final
The competition includes eight franchise teams representing Australia’s great surfing regions: Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast (Burleigh), Gold Coast (Snapper), Northern Rivers, Newcastle, Sydney Northern Beaches, Sydney South, Melbourne
The league plans to pay its 48 surfers a flat $89,000 for eight weeks of competition - Athletes can retain personal sponsors and compete on international tours outside the league season
Olympic bronze medallist Owen Wright and former world No.2 surfer Bede Durbidge have been recruited, Mick Fanning is also expected to compete (via AFR)
The format features purpose-built beach stadiums
Surfing is culturally central, massively popular, yet virtually uncommercialised in Australia
Few countries have a stronger relationship with surfing than Australia.
Research from the Australian National University estimates recreational surfing contributes $2.71 billion directly to the Australian economy each year.
There are an estimated 6.3 million active surfers nationally, alongside a broader audience of approximately 7.3 million surfing fans.
Those are enormous numbers.
But compare surfing’s commercial ecosystem with Australia’s major professional sporting competitions and there’s a significant disconnect.
The AFL generated $1.2 billion in revenue in 2025
The NRL generated $845 million in 2025
Surfing Australia, by comparison, generated around $12 million through sponsorship, government grants and participation programs (via AFR)
Of course, they’re fundamentally different organisations and the comparison isn’t apples-for-apples.
But it illustrates the broader point - Australians spend billions on surfing and millions follow and participate in the sport, yet relatively little of that economic activity has been converted into a domestic professional sports product.
That’s the gap the Surfing Super League wants to fill.
The Surfing Super League is designed to generate revenue in two ways
Traditional revenue streams such as broadcast rights, sponsorship, memberships and hospitality. The competition will be broadcast live and is being ‘built for TV’ - Founder Chris Mater is negotiating a broadcast rights deal and has spoken to “all the key players” – citing Seven, Foxtel, Nine and Network 10 (via AFR)
League & team ownership - Attracting investors at the League-level or via the eight individual franchises spread across its high-value East Coast coastal markets
In July, former Coca-Cola marketing executive and current Vetz Petz CEO David Elsworth reportedly acquired a 3.6% stake for $483,333.
That transaction already implies a valuation of approximately $13.5 million, more than a year before the league stages its first event.
Chris Mater has ambitious growth plans
He believes the Surfing Super League has the potential to generate $200 million in annual revenue by its fifth year, which would put it among Australia’s larger sporting properties by revenue.
The stated plan is to build the competition before potentially selling it to private investors after its first four years.
“VC and private equity investment is unlocking the commercial value of underserved sports fanbases globally. With massive participation growth and untapped revenue potential, we are building a scalable framework for partners and investors to own a piece of Australia’s next major sports ecosystem.”
- Chris Mater, Founder and CEO, Surfing Super League
The Surfing Super League’s arrival fits into a much bigger shift taking place across global sport.
Sport is increasingly being treated as an asset class
Sport in Australia is booming in popularity, with the country’s codes enjoying higher participation and engagement than ever before. Whilst popularity soars, what is often misunderstood, or not considered at all, is how the major competitions are structured, and the effect that that structure has on the code’s capacity to grow in a manner that serves its commercial interests, and that of the community it represents.
What is abundantly clear is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to an ownership model.
Across the country’s major sporting competitions, being AFL, NRL, A-League, Super Rugby, NBL and the Big Bash, each competition has adopted a different model.
However, with the increasing money flowing into sports from private equity, venture capital and family offices, pressure is being applied on member/governing body-owned competitions to reassess their ownership model to determine whether it remains fit for purpose.
Related: Who owns Australia’s sporting clubs and why it matters
The most recent prominent example of this is Cricket Australia and its Big Bash League, which has been investigating private investment because it believes the League needs significantly more capital to compete in the rapidly globalising T20 market.
Where can Super Surf League draw inspiration from?
Deloitte’s 2026 Global Sports Industry Outlook points to a significant expansion of the global sports landscape, with new leagues, teams, competitions and formats emerging at pace. Strong audiences, attendances, investment and rising team valuations are helping fuel this growth, creating opportunities for everything from new women’s competitions and alternative formats to previously niche sports seeking a larger share of attention.
As the global sports marketplace becomes more fragmented and competitive, disruption of the traditional sports landscape is taking place.
Related: The sports landscape is shifting
In the last week:
Melbourne Storm completed an $80 million sell-off to EQT - members of the Swedish private-equity firm will join members of Storm’s ownership group on the Board of Directors and Matt Tripp will remain Chairman of the Club
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos joined a consortium which acquired a ~30% stake in Liverpool FC
Los Angeles Lakers were sold to venture capitalist Josh Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger for a record-breaking $12.5 billion
Although it recently faced an existential threat following Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund’s decision to withdraw its financial backing, LIV Golf Adelaide has demonstrated how quickly a challenger property can establish itself within the Australian sporting calendar. The event was named the World’s Best Golf Event at the the World Golf Awards for the third consecutive year.
Related: The world’s best golf event (literally), LIV Golf Adelaide 2025 unpacked, LIV Golf takes over town
Look around global sport and some of its biggest growth stories have involved investors identifying an under-commercialised audience and building a more valuable product around it.
UFC: Dana White and the Fertitta brothers purchased the struggling organisation for approximately $2 million in 2001 - Two decades later, UFC was valued at US$12.3 billion when it combined with WWE under TKO Group
Wrexham AFC: The club spent decades in the lower tiers of English football but since being purchased by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney for around $4M million in 2021, it’s become one of the most popular football clubs (thanks to the docuseries “Welcome to Wrexham) - Last year Bloomberg claimed that the club was worth up to $700m
Formula 1: Since being purchased by Liberty Media in 2017 for $8 billion it’s achieved rapid (and somewhat unexpected) growth over recent years and is now worth $30+ billion
SailGP: A league co-founded in 2018 by Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison (one of the world’s richest people) and championship sailor Russell Coutts (SailGP CEO) has seen its revenue and valuation (both league & teams) skyrocket since its launch
Related: SailGP’s high-speed growth story
Buyer beware - Success isn’t always assured
For every UFC, Formula 1 or SailGP success story, there are plenty of challenger leagues that haven’t worked.
Grand Slam Track, the ambitious athletics league founded by Olympic legend Michael Johnson, launched in 2025 after raising more than US$30 million, but quickly ran into financial trouble and were forced to file for bankruptcy.
This serves as a reminder that capital can accelerate a sporting property, but it can’t manufacture financial sustainability.
Can the Surfing Super League build something that is commercially sustainable and valuable over the long term?
Australia doesn’t need to be convinced to surf, or to care about it. Millions of Australians already do both.
The opportunity, and the challenge, is converting that enormous participation base, cultural relevance and existing fandom into a domestic sports property that people consistently watch, brands want to sponsor and investors want to back.
The Surfing Super League is betting that it can do just that.
Watch this space.
2XU - Head Of Design
adidas - Manager, Field Key Accounts
adidas - Senior Specialist, DC Operations
adidas - Senior Specialist, Membership & CRM
Amer Sports - Creative Content Manager
Amer Sports - Graphic Designer & Production Coordinator
Amer Sports - Marketing Operations Manager
Amer Sports - PR & Social Media Specialist
Amer Sports - Sports & Community Marketing Manager
ASICS - Retail Marketing Executive
Athletics NSW - Communications Specialist
Athletics Victoria - Brand and Content Lead
Australian Golf Services - Corporate Communications Lead
Australian Grand Prix Corporation - New Partnerships Manager
Bastion - General Manager - Experience
Bastion - Senior Client Director
Betfair Australia - Content Coordinator
Brand Collective - Graphic Designer - Reebok
Brand Collective - Group Social Content & Creator Manager
Brand Collective - Marketing Specialist - Reebok
Brisbane 2032 - Communications Manager
Brisbane Broncos - Commercial Partnerships Lead
Brisbane Broncos - Sport Business Institute Manager
Brisbane Racing Club - Digital Marketing Executive
Cricket Australia - Sport Presentation Coordinator
Cricket Victoria - Commercial Sales Manager
Dabble - Head of CRM
Easygo - Sponsorships Lead
Football NSW - Multimedia Producer
Future Golf - Content Creator
Football Australia - Senior Partnerships Manager
Melbourne Park - Chief Digital & Marketing Officer
Melbourne Park - Head of Australian Open
Melbourne Park - Project Manager
MKTG Sports + Entertainment Australia - Strategy Director
Netball Australia - Head of Media Rights & Broadcast
Netball Australia - Marketing and Community Engagement Manager
Netball ACT - General Manager
Netball NSW - General Manager
Netball World Cup Sydney 2027 - Media & Public Relations Manager
NFL - Senior Manager, New Business Development & Emerging Markets, Australia
On - Area Lead, Oceania
Optus Stadium - Marketing and Communications Coordinator
Penrith Panthers - Foundation Partnerships Manager
Perth Bears - Creative & Content Manager
Queensland Touch Football - Marketing & Communications Manager
Racing.com - Brand Integration Executive
Rifle - Sales Manager
Rip Curl - Rip Curl Head of Membership & CX
Rowing Victoria - Communications & Member Engagement Coordinator
SailGP - Marketing Manager, APAC
Softball Australia - Marketing and Communications Manager
Sports Entertainment Network - Commercial Manager
Sports Entertainment Network - Community Development Manager
Sports Entertainment Network - Digital and Social Platforms Manager – SEN TEAMS
Sports Entertainment Network - General Manager - Melbourne Mavericks Netball
Sports Entertainment Network - Partnership Manage
Stadiums Queensland - Event Coordinator
Sting Sports - Content and Social Media Manager
Sunshine Coast Lightning - Digital Content Producer
Sydney FC - Sky Blue Pathways - Marketing Coordinator
Tasmania FC - Videography Lead
Tennis Australia - New Business Development Lead
Tennis Australia - Patron Communications Manager
Tennis Australia - Precinct Activations Lead
TGI Sport - Account Manager - Professional Sporting Clubs
Ticketmaster Australia - Client Partnership Specialist - Sport
Tradable Bits - Customer Success Manager, APAC
VenuesWest - General Manger Content and Programming
Victoria Racing Club - Customer Engagement Lead
Victoria Racing Club - Marketing Campaign Manager
WPP - Partnerships Manager
WME - Associate Talent Manager
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