Anyone keeping a keen eye on the flow of private money into sports can’t fail to have noticed that, in among the multi-billion-pound football club acquisitions, white-ball cricket investments and putative new rugby competitions, triathlon has become a hot ticket.
Ironman, the sport’s biggest brand, last week trumpeted what it believes is the single most valuable capital injection in triathlon history, a five-year partnership with the tourist board of Oman thought to be worth more than $40m (£30m).
It followed the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO), which runs the T100 Triathlon World Tour, raising a similar sum through a Series C funding round led by Surj Sports Investments, an arm of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, earlier this year.
Not to be outdone, Supertri – whose focus is on short-course swim-bike-run events – is currently seeking to raise $65m as it plots the expansion of its portfolio of events in North America and Europe.
So, what is luring investors to a fundamentally niche sport? And is there room in the market for three different commercial operators of triathlon and other endurance events?
British demand drives Ironman’s Oman deal
The Ironman Group, which was acquired by the US media house behind Conde Nast in 2020 for $730m, runs more than 170 triathlons worldwide but is best known for its signature 140-mile distance events which are among the most prestigious in endurance sport.
Like the PTO and Supertri, Ironman operates a series for professionals alongside amateur races which represent a burgeoning commercial opportunity. Supertri says the global mass participation sports market is expected to expand 25 per cent in five years.
Britain has long been a heartland for triathlon, spawning greats of the sport like the Brownlee brothers, Chrissie Wellington and current Olympic champion Alex Yee. It also has a thriving amateur scene, perhaps second only to the sport’s native North America.
Experience Oman’s partnership with Ironman, which will see the Gulf state host a full-distance race from next year and stage the 2029 World Championships of its 70.3 distance, was driven in part by a desire to lure Britain’s very willing weekend warriors.
“We’ll sell out every race this year in Europe, and the races for 2026 are selling out even faster than they did this year. In particular, the UK market is on fire,” Ironman CEO Scott DeRue tells City AM.
“This year we’ve got approximately 20,000 UK athletes racing with us in Ironman and 70.3. That’s a little over 13 per cent growth to last year. If you look at just Ironman, it’s about 27 per cent growth year over year.
“What we’ve seen with endurance sports, generally speaking, in the UK, is a story of growth for triathlon. We’re seeing the same and for the Ironman brand and community, that growth is even faster and so we’re seeing a lot of positive momentum right now.
“One of the biggest and most important countries from a tourism perspective to Oman is the UK and so in many ways the strength of the Ironman brand in the UK and Western Europe was a big motivation for why Oman was excited to make this partnership happen as well.
“The UK market is a really interesting one, because there’s certain countries that don’t travel that much. The UK athletes love to travel. And so it’s about having the portfolio in the UK, but it’s also about giving the UK athletes inspiring experiences, because they often want to travel.”
PTO also taps Middle East triathlon interest
The PTO has also capitalised on appetite from the Middle East to tap into the growing popularity of triathlon, not just from Surj and Saudi Arabia but also Qatar, which began a five-year contract to stage the T100 tour’s grand final last year.
The T100 series, whose other investors include Warner Bros Discovery and British billionaire Sir Michael Moritz, features pros such as Lucy Charles-Barclay, Taylor Knibb and Rico Bogen competing in nine destinations – including London – over its unique 100km format.
Surj, which has also backed sports streaming platform Dazn, combat sports and influencer-heavy seven-a-side football competition Kings League, has a remit to invest in properties that will also stimulate growth and physical activity in the kingdom.
“We’re very much focused on leagues, tools and series with IP that we can move around and take advantage of their nomadic nature,” Surj CEO Danny Townsend told City AM in June. “When you can bring an event here, you can build a facility, develop a pipeline of talent; those types of things encourage participation.”
There is also synergy between the shared Olympic ambitions of Riyadh and the PTO. Saudi Arabia is keen to host the Summer Games in 2036 or 2040, while T100 has been floated as a possible addition to the current Olympic programme.
London-based Supertri, founded by CEO Michael D’Hulst and billionaire Leonid Boguslavsky, also has a pro series featuring the likes of Jonny Brownlee, Yee and Cassandre Beaugrand but its main focus is on growing its mass-participation offering.
Yesterday it announced the addition of Britain’s biggest triathlon, at Blenheim Palace, and another event in New Jersey to a portfolio that already included races in Chicago, Long Beach and Toronto, as well as an esports platform.
Can all three triathlon brands thrive?
While investor appetite is strong, is there room in the market for all three of Ironman, T100 and Supertri? It helps, of course, that all three brands offer slightly differentiated distances. DeRue sees shorter courses as breeding grounds for future Ironman participants.
“Most people who have never done a triathlon don’t wake up and say, ‘You know what I want to do tomorrow? I want to do an Ironman’. So we need a really healthy ecosystem in short-course racing and local community racing to build the sport,” he added.
“I think there’s room for all of these players. What Supertri is doing on short-course racing and with their Super League, I think that’s really encouraging for the sport. What T100 has done is really elevated the pro side of the sport, alongside us.
“I think that’s great for the sport. It’s bringing new and different brands into the sport to support the athletes. It’s giving the pro athletes an opportunity to shine and earn a living. And I think that’s great for the sport as we professionalise and grow.”
