SailGP Caps Fifth Season with Record Year

SailGP has closed its 2025 season with record audience growth, new commercial partnerships, high-profile investors and scaled global operations as it looks to cement its position as one of the fastest-growing sport and entertainment packages in the world.

The review marks an inflection point for the global racing championship. Launched in 2019 by Co-Founder and CEO Sir Russell Coutts and Oracle Founder and CTO Larry Ellison, SailGP celebrated its fifth season this year and it is planning further expansion.

The 2025 season featured 12 Grand Prix events for the first time and expanded into four new venues — Portsmouth (United Kingdom), Sassnitz (Germany), Geneva (Switzerland) and Auckland (New Zealand).

Twelve teams took to the start line — SailGP’s largest fleet yet — including two new nations, the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team and Mubadala Brazil, the league’s first South American entry. Brazil’s debut was historic, introducing SailGP’s first female driver in two-time Olympic champion Martine Grael.

In 2025, fans turned out in force, with more than 112,000 ticketed spectators attending in person, including 25,000 in Auckland and 20,000 in Portsmouth. SailGP’s on-shore fan experience and bespoke Adrenaline Lounge, a waterside hospitality experience for partners and invited guests, contributed to an average net promoter score of +58 across its events.

In returning cities such as Dubai, Sydney, San Francisco and Cádiz, nearly half of ticket purchasers were repeat SailGP attendees. Across the 12-month calendar, championship events drove more than US $230 million in regional economic impact.

Broadcast Audience and Digital and Social Channel Growth

SailGP’s dedicated broadcast audience averaged 18 million viewers per event, and the league broke its own record for single-event viewership twice — at the KPMG Sydney Sail Grand Prix in February and the DP World Spain Sail Grand Prix in October.

In the United States, the Race to Abu Dhabi broadcast on CBS in November reached 3.469 million live linear viewers — the most-watched sailing race in U.S. history, surpassing the 1992 America’s Cup.

In terms of digital and social channels, total social views surpassed 1.65 billion — a 90 per cent increase from Season Four — alongside 20.7 million engagements with SailGP’s social channels. SailGP’s YouTube subscribers surpassed one million, while total followers across major social platforms reached 2.7 million.

The championship launched its first premium docuseries, “Uncharted,” which had more than four million views around the world on streaming platforms such as Paramount+, Discovery, CANAL+ and others.

Sponsorship and Investment Impact

Rolex became the new title partner of SailGP in 2025, and the championship secured new multi-season global league partnerships with DP World, Emirates, Accor, KPMG and Fever. Other new title partners include BONDS (Australia), Red Bull (Italy) and Mubadala (Brazil).

As a number of new investors join the global sail racing championship, from celebrity owners to venture capital and private equity funds, valuations of SailGP teams are now exceeding US $60 million.

In July, SailGP opened its global headquarters for design, manufacturing and innovation excellence. Located in Southampton, UK, SailGP Technologies marked a U.S. $10 million investment into the future of the global racing championship, home to more than 115 designers, engineers, boat builders and composites specialists.

“The 2025 Season has reinforced SailGP’s position as a global leader in sport and entertainment, with record audiences and world-class racing bringing our championship to new heights,” said Andrew Thompson, managing director of SailGP. “In just five seasons, we’ve exceeded all the initial major targets set in 2019 – doubling the number of teams and events, while increasing annual audience and revenue by 12x and 20x, respectively, since Season One.

“As SailGP enters our next era, we are enormously grateful for our growing family of partners and teams. Together, we’re reimagining the sport and sponsorship landscape, demonstrating SailGP’s growing influence and relevance worldwide and we have plans to continue to scale for the next years and beyond.”

SailGP will return for 2026 for the inaugural Oracle Perth Sail Grand Prix presented by KPMG (January 17–18, 2026). A record 13 nations will join the startline, including new entry Artemis Racing, representing Sweden.