SailGP has signed Rolex as the first title partner of its global crusing competition.

Courtesy: SailGP

The self-described System 1 of cruising has signed Rolex as the first title partner of its elite sailboat racing competition.

SailGP’s sequence of events, which kicks off its 2025 season in Dubai on Saturday, will now be is named the “Rolex SailGP Championship.”

“Main into our fifth season, SailGP is celebrating a length of outstanding increase,” acknowledged league CEO Russell Coutts. “This would possibly perhaps perhaps perhaps well velocity up our next part of increase and put our location as the premier global championship in the game of cruising.”

The Swiss luxury watchmaker first partnered with the game all the arrangement via its inaugural championship in 2019. The title partnership will plug for the following decade, via 2034. Rolex will additionally continue as the legitimate timepiece of SailGP.

SailGP’s global championship factors a dozen national groups from the U.S., Italy, Germany and others struggling with in the same high-tech, high-velocity 50-foot foiling catamarans.

Boats dawdle at speeds drawing near 60 miles per hour and compete for a $7 million sizable prize.

SailGP has signed Rolex as the first title partner of its global crusing competition.

Courtesy: SailGP

SailGP used to be established utilizing a centrally owned enterprise model with the arrangement of transitioning to a non-public possession model within its first five years. In the upcoming season, 10 of 12 groups will seemingly be privately owned, and future groups will seemingly be independently owned and financed, the league told CNBC.

Some Wall Avenue titans include backed the game in the closing year, including league co-founder and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison and Avenue Capital Crew Chairman Marc Lasry.

In 2023, an investor team led by Lasry’s Avenue Sports activities Fund got the U.S. crew for $35 million.

As hobby has grown, most of the groups include attracted important sponsors, too, including manufacturers such as Red Bull, Emirates, Mubadala, Rockwool and Deutsche Financial institution.

“What you include seen in the closing three years is that crusing is dwarfing the other leagues,” Lasry told CNBC’s “Mutter Box” in Could perhaps perhaps perhaps.

Closing season SailGP drew its finest American TV target audience all the arrangement via the Spain Soar Plentiful Prix, at 1.78 million viewers on CBS.

Publicizes reach 212 territories worldwide, and viewership increased forty eight% year over year to roughly 200 million viewers on moderate all the arrangement via its fourth season’s 13 dawdle events, the league experiences.

SailGP in its fifth season will include fresh broadcast agreements in Germany, Italy, Brazil and Spain to develop its linear target audience.

“As a heritage sport in many markets, crusing’s demographic historically has been affluent contributors and spectators,” acknowledged Coutts. “We’re enticing a fresh generation of racing followers that has already been demonstrated by our digital boom and social engagement figures, as well to to our fanbase in markets where we include fresh groups such as Italy and Brazil.”

Correction: This epic has been updated to properly replicate the SailGP championship’s fresh title. A previous version mischaracterized the change.