Mustang Survival
December 4, 2023
Major League Fishing To Acquire Fishing League Worldwide
Featured Freshwater Tournaments

Major League Fishing To Acquire Fishing League Worldwide

October 10, 2019, 5:00 A.M. EST (Tulsa, Okla.)Β Major League Fishing (MLF) announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire Fishing League Worldwide (FLW), the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization. The Letter of Intent (LOI) sets in motion the most significant brand merger in competitive bass fishing history, linking a tour and original, award-winning programming featuring the top professional anglers in the world to an extensive grassroots organization that serves tens of thousands of competitive anglers from high school and college to weekenders and tour pros.

β€œWe’re thrilled about welcoming FLW to the MLF team,” said Jim Wilburn, President and CEO of Major League Fishing. β€œFLW shares our commitment to creating tournaments and opportunities centered on the success of the angler. Through this acquisition, we are better positioned to support anglers and sponsors at all levels.”

β€œOur business plan always included reaching all levels of grassroots fishing,” said Boyd Duckett, MLF co-founder and President of the Professional Bass Tour Anglers’ Association (PBTAA). β€œFLW does it best with the Tour and grassroots tournaments; their reputation in competitive bass fishing is remarkable and their culture has always been pro-angler, which makes this the perfect opportunity for both organizations. We couldn’t be more excited about FLW: their team, anglers, and sponsors.”

β€œThis announcement marks a thrilling new chapter in FLW’s history as we join Major League Fishing and begin a new era in the sport of competitive bass fishing,” said FLW President of Operations Kathy Fennel. β€œAs part of the Major League Fishing team, we look forward to enhancing and expanding tournament offerings to our anglers and fans. Our teams have a very similar mission and vision – to support anglers at all levels, provide the industry with unmatched opportunities, and grow the sport. The complementary strengths of our organizations make this a win for the entire sport.”

Established in 2011, MLF began as a television product and has grown into a sports league with the launch of the Bass Pro Tour in January of 2019. MLF is a partnership between the PBTAA and Outdoor Sportsman Group (OSG), a division of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment.

β€œAs MLF continues to grow, we’re committed to find the right opportunities to extend the Outdoor Sportsman Group properties,” Outdoor Sportsman Group President and CEO, Jim Liberatore said. β€œThrough this acquisition, MLF can leverage our extensive media reach and award-winning content production to promote competitive bass fishing at all levels.”

Each year FLW offers thousands of anglers of all skill levels across the globe the opportunity to compete for millions of dollars in prize money in five tournament circuits. Under the leadership of Irwin Jacobs, FLW expanded the top level of competition to include the industry’s first seven-figure purse.

β€œIt has been our mission since my father, Irwin Jacobs, purchased FLW in 1996 to bring the highest quality of tournaments to anglers, sponsors and fans around the world,” said Trish Blake, FLW President of Marketing. β€œBy joining forces with Major League Fishing, the sport of professional tournament fishing will be taken to new heights for anglers across the world at all levels.”

Major League Fishing and Fishing League Worldwide anticipate an acquisition close date of October 31, 2019.

For more information about this acquisition, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com/FLW.

About FLW
FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete in more than 290 bass-fishing tournaments across five circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, FLW and their partners offer a High School Fishing and College Fishing Series, the Bass Fishing League (BFL) series for grassroots anglers, the Costa FLW Series for aspiring professionals and the FLW Tour, which showcases some of the top anglers in the world. For more information visitΒ FLWFishing.comΒ and follow FLW on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

About Major League FishingΒ Β Β 

Founded in 2011,Β Major League FishingΒ (MLF) brings the high-intensity sport of competitive bass fishing into America’s living rooms on Outdoor Channel, Discovery, CBS, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network, Sportsman Channel and on-demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). New for 2019, the Bass Pro Tour consists of eight events and a championship streamed live on www.MajorLeagueFishing.comΒ and MOTV. MLF uses the entertaining and conservation-friendly catch, weigh and immediate-release format where every scoreable bass counts and the winner is the angler with the highest cumulative weight.

For more information on the league and anglers, visitΒ www.MajorLeagueFishing.comΒ and follow MLF onΒ Twitter,Β InstagramΒ andΒ Facebook.

For more in-depth coverage, seeΒ Game & FishΒ magazine, the official publication of MLF.

Press Contacts:

Tricia Milford

Director, PR and Communications

[email protected]

Mobile 407-928-9868

Joe Opager

Director of Public Relations, FLW

[email protected]

Mobile 218-434-0748