Video Games

Golf Rival to add LIV Golf-branded content

Zynga partners up with Saudi-funded organization

Marco Wutz

Zynga

Zynga, the mobile game publisher owned by Take-Two Interactive, has entered a partnership with Saudi-owned organization LIV Golf to bring branded content to Golf Rival, its successful iOS and Android title.

Time-limited tournaments with LIV Golf branding will run in the game from June 8 to 16 as well as July 20 to 28, 2024. Special golf balls with the organization’s branding will be available to assist in these competitions.

LIV Golf has been founded as a rival organization to the PGA Tour as part of Saudi Arabia’s effort in diversifying its economy – though the move has been criticized as a sportswashing attempt as well. While LIV Golf has been able to tempt some professionals into its ecosystem, PGA Tour is still clearly dominant in the video game space with big titles such as EA Sports PGA Tour.

LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman hailed the partnership with Zynga as “an exciting step forward into the incredibly popular and fast-growing gaming space.”

“As we continue to build for the future,” he added, “our league is uniquely positioned through the

development of team brands, player IP and exciting new technologies to engage with mobile interactive entertainment – and we’re just getting started.”

“Like Golf Rival, LIV Golf delivers its competition in fun, innovative ways that are connecting with young, diverse audiences,” commented Branko Milutinović, the head of Zynga’s Nordeus studio. “We are very excited to partner with LIV Golf on their first foray into mobile games and help grow golf through digital gameplay worldwide!”

Golf Rival is a free-to-play game available on iOS and Android devices. It’s listed as having been downloaded more than ten million times on Google Play Store, where over half a million users rated it with 3.9 out of 5 stars. 

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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