MotoGP named CAA Sports its exclusive global sponsorship agency, consolidating worldwide commercial rights under the Creative Artists Agency unit that already represents the NFL, UEFA Champions League, and Yankee Stadium naming rights. The deal covers all markets and categories—energy drinks to consumer electronics to luxury watches—and runs through at least the 2027 season, according to two people familiar with the agreement. CAA takes over from a patchwork of regional brokers MotoGP's commercial team used since Liberty Media sold the property to Dorna Sports in 1992.
The move arrives as MotoGP chases a category valuation reset. Average race attendance climbed 9% in 2025 to 68,000 per event, but title sponsorship revenue still trails Formula 1's by roughly $180 million annually, per Pitchbook Sport estimates. Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta told investors in April that MotoGP's global TV audience of 410 million cumulative viewers justifies "tier-one automotive and technology partnerships," but the series has struggled to land a presenting sponsor since Tissot's $12 million annual deal expired in 2023. CAA's brief is explicit: find a title partner paying $25 million or more per season and build a second tier of six to eight Official Partners each writing checks above $8 million.
CAA brings Octagon Sport's old MotoGP playbook and three names. Marc Schaefer, who ran sponsorship for the German Grand Prix before joining CAA in 2022, will lead day-to-day. The agency already places Ducati Corse riders in non-endemic deals—most recently a $2.1 million Parmigiani watch endorsement for Francesco Bagnaia—and maintains relationships with Red Bull, Monster Energy, and Estrella Galicia, all current circuit sponsors hunting global platform deals. One luxury CMO sizing a MotoGP investment noted CAA's pitch deck arrived with paddle access and dinner reservations at the next race in Mugello, a level of hospitality coordination Dorna's internal team never managed.
What CAA needs is inventory. The series runs 22 races but offers fewer in-venue activations than F1's 24-event calendar, and paddock access remains tightly controlled by factory teams, not the commercial rights holder. That structure limits sponsor hospitality to 1,200 VIP passes per weekend versus 3,800 at an average F1 Grand Prix, per Sportcal data. CAA is expected to push Dorna to create a dedicated sponsor village at five flyaway races—starting with the Circuit of the Americas round in April 2027—and negotiate broader signage rights currently held by individual teams. One team principal described the negotiation as "overdue but annoying," since factory squads have sold their own garage branding for decades.
The deal structure mirrors CAA's work for the English Premier League, where the agency took a low single-digit revenue commission but earned performance bonuses tied to category growth. MotoGP pays CAA a base fee estimated at $4 million annually plus 12% of net new sponsorship revenue above 2025 baselines, according to one person who reviewed term sheets. That math works if CAA delivers the title deal and premium tier by mid-2027, ahead of broadcast renewal talks with Sky Sports and DAZN.
Watch for CAA to shop a presenting partnership to Emirates, DHL, and Rolex before the 2027 season opener in Qatar on March 7. Schaefer is expected in the Jerez paddock for pre-season testing in February, where he'll host sponsor prospects during a three-day media event that drew 18,000 fans last year. One team agent noted that CAA's Formula 1 clients—including Mercedes AMG and Aston Martin—are already asking whether MotoGP offers cheaper hospitality inventory for B2B activations, a question Dorna couldn't answer six months ago.
The agency's win also signals what Dorna is willing to pay to close the gap. Liberty Media sold the property for $4.5 billion in 2021 valuations; current enterprise value sits near $3.8 billion, per two private equity sources who passed on a minority stake last year. Hiring CAA is the clearest sign yet that Ezpeleta's team knows it left money on the table while Formula 1 signed $1.2 billion in new sponsorships since 2023. CAA's first assignment is proving MotoGP is worth the premium.
Dorna declined to comment on financial terms but confirmed the appointment in a June 23 release. CAA Sports president Nick Khan, who joined from WWE in 2020, said the agency sees "significant whitespace" in MotoGP's commercial structure. Translation: underpriced, underleveraged, and ready for the same treatment that turned the College Football Playoff into a $7.8 billion media property. The first test comes in 94 days when CAA presents its revised sponsorship deck at Dorna's October board meeting in Madrid.
The takeaway
MotoGP trades regional brokers for CAA's Rolodex, chasing a $25M+ title deal Formula 1's success proved exists.
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