Innovation – Will LIV Golf Become The Tesla Or The Segway Of The Sport

The staid world of professional golf is experiencing unprecedented disruption from an enormously well-funded startup, LIV Golf. LIV has stormed onto the scene threatening the existence of the established professional leagues that have controlled the sport for decades. With guaranteed contracts and unrivaled purses, it has taken only a few months for 22 of the world’s top 100 players to sign up with LIV, with more high-profile player signings expected soon.

LIV Golf is an innovation that started as an idea and a vision to transform the sport. The league has changed many core aspects of the professional game. Rather than playing for history and large purses, LIV players have guaranteed contracts plus enormous paydays. Rather than having golf tournaments stretch out for ten hours a day for four days, LIV tourneys are three-day, five-hour events that bring a team element to a historically individual sport. Even the business model, funded by TV ad revenues, is upended and reportedly replaced by team sponsorship and merchandising.

LIV faces fierce resistance not only from the current golf tours but also from many golf fans who do not like that the league is funded primarily by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. And while this backlash may hurt LIV in the short term, it will have minimal impact in the long term because rejection of new ideas from conventional thinkers is par for the course for most innovations. Notable examples include Darwin, who was laughed at when he introduced his theory of evolution, and the telephone, which was never supposed to be successful because there was no shortage of messenger boys at the time of its introduction. According to experts, online shopping was never supposed to catch on, and neither was the iPhone, the personal computer, the TV, or the automobile.

But just because LIV Golf is new, different, and well-funded does not mean it will succeed. The Segway and Tesla are examples of prominent inventions designed to revolutionize transportation. As we know, Tesla became transformational, whereas Segway, even though it was a great idea where you could operate a vehicle almost by thought, never came close to realizing its potential.

Whether LIV becomes the Tesla or the Segway of professional golf will be determined by the same elements that have influenced every innovation in history. And while LIV can continue to attract the world’s best players with hefty contracts, how it adapts to these forces will dictate its future success. Below are a few examples of what will eventually drive the success or failure of this league.

The Environment

Innovation requires the right timing and macro trends to work in its favor. Fortunately for LIV, they do. Golf is gaining popularity, especially among the younger generation ready for new experiences. We see this through the growth of innovations like Top Golf and screen golf played on simulators. And as the golf market grows, there is more room for fresh ideas to succeed. To put the shifting dynamics in perspective, almost as many people play golf off the course as on-course golfers.

Another trend working in LIV’s favor is that cord-cutting consumers are abandoning cable TV, leading to fewer people having access to viewing professional golf. When they do, they see more ads than action leading to a subpar viewing experience. Viewers are increasingly more comfortable with streaming content on their TVs or laptops, as evidenced by the fact that Netflix alone has more subscribers than cable and satellite combined. LIV streams golf events ad-free, which aligns with how people consume entertainment today.

Complexity

Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as relatively difficult to understand and use. The more complex an innovation, the less likely it is to get adopted. LIV loses here because it is a complex offering. While a team format may be exciting, viewers have no affiliation with any team. Typically, professional sports teams are geographic, and you root for your home team. That does not (as yet) exist in LIV. Adding to the complexity is that the individual vs. team game format is not intuitive. Which one is more important, and which should viewers follow?

Similar reasons led to the Segway’s failure; while it was easy to use, some of the most straightforward actions weren’t intuitive. For example, people weren’t sure if they should use their Segway on the road or on the sidewalk. It was too slow to be on the street and too fast to be safe among pedestrians. LIV is in a similar position and needs to think through every element of its offering to ensure a simple and relevant experience for its fan base. Any questions about how to follow the sport will impede its adoption.

Relative Advantage

The advantage an innovation offers over the idea that it is replacing is the most critical aspect of its success. The success or failure of the upstart league is entirely dependent on the relative advantage it offers fans over current golf. Is the fan experience of viewing a LIV tourney better than that of watching a conventional event? Can LIV deliver the edge-of-your-seat drama and excitement fans crave from every sport? Or is LIV an expensive answer searching for a problem?

If LIV wants to succeed, the most important thing it can do is articulate its “experience delta,” or the difference in experience between traditional golf and LIV events. Every successful innovation has offered a positive experience delta; i.e., the new idea was significantly better than the old one. Compared to the storied golf events with history and tradition, LIV is at a disadvantage. Having top players and live streamed, ad-free events are good, but that is not enough. LIV needs to offer a compelling reason to build a fan base. For the league to be successful, its players need to play for something the viewers care about, not just for money, which only the players care about.

LIV Can Succeed or Fail Like Any New Idea

LIV has the building blocks to become a significant innovation in the sport, including star power, teams, deep pockets, no prior baggage to carry, and the ability to build whatever it wants. But it needs to experiment without getting locked into its initial ideas. Innovation is never static; it happens when ideas morph from one form to the next, each adding to a positive experience delta. And if the LIV “product” can evolve into something that fans love, that is when it will become a force.

Every innovation has grown through continual improvement. The best thing LIV can do to become the Tesla and not the Segway is to focus on making its product relevant and exciting for fans and ignoring the noise, which every great innovator does.