The Reynolds Effect: How Star Power Lures Tech Giants to Luxury Sports

NEW YORK, NY – November 25, 2025 – In a move that underscores the potent mix of celebrity, sport, and technology, work management software firm monday.com has announced a three-year global partnership with the Australian SailGP team. The team, recently rebranded as the Bonds Flying Roos and co-owned by Hollywood A-listers Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, represents a new frontier for corporate sponsorship, where star power is becoming as valuable as on-field performance.

This partnership designates monday.com as the 'Official Global Work Management Partner' for one of the world's most dominant sailing crews as they pursue a historic fourth championship. While the press release highlights the operational synergies, the deal's real significance lies in what it signals about the changing landscape of marketing and investment. It's a clear example of the “Wrexham Effect” hitting the high seas, where celebrity cachet transforms a niche sports entity into a blue-chip commercial platform, attracting non-endemic sponsors far from the sport’s traditional ecosystem.

Beyond the Boardroom: A New Playbook for Brand Visibility

For monday.com, a B2B software company, sponsoring a high-speed sailing team is not a random act of marketing but a calculated move in a larger strategic playbook. This is the same company that previously invested in a Super Bowl commercial and orchestrated a unique partnership with Vogue to manage the intricate logistics of the Met Gala. These high-profile initiatives demonstrate a clear strategy: to elevate the brand beyond industry trade shows and into the mainstream cultural conversation.

The partnership with the Bonds Flying Roos fits this pattern perfectly. It provides the software company with a dynamic, high-stakes case study. As Tom Slingsby, the team's Driver and CEO, noted, “Winning in SailGP is the result of everything that happens long before we hit the start line.” By embedding its Work OS into the team's core operations—managing everything from crew training schedules and performance analytics to the immense logistical challenge of moving a team and its high-tech catamarans across continents—monday.com can showcase its platform's power in an extreme, real-world environment. This narrative is far more compelling than a standard corporate whitepaper.

This strategy is also part of a broader trend among B2B tech firms seeking to differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace. Competitor Smartsheet has a high-profile technology partnership with the McLaren Formula 1 team, while ClickUp supports the San Diego Padres' IT operations. These companies are betting that associating with the precision, speed, and global appeal of elite sports will resonate with their target audience of business leaders and decision-makers, proving their product's mettle in the most demanding of circumstances.

Celebrity Cachet as a Commercial Catalyst

The ability to attract a major B2B tech partner like monday.com and an iconic Australian title sponsor like Bonds is inextricably linked to the team's new ownership structure. The involvement of Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds has fundamentally altered the team's commercial gravity. Reynolds' success with the Welsh football club Wrexham AFC, which he co-owns with Rob McElhenney, created a blueprint for leveraging celebrity to revitalize a sports franchise, attract global attention, and secure lucrative sponsorship deals.

SailGP league executives and team leaders have openly acknowledged this influence. The addition of Jackman and Reynolds was described as a “landmark moment” for the league, bringing “an extraordinary combination of global reach, vision, [and] commercial nous.” This star power acts as a magnet for brands, providing instant media amplification and a level of cultural relevance that is difficult for any sports property to achieve on its own. CEO Tom Slingsby admitted that securing a title partner of Bonds' stature would have been “not possible” just a few years ago, before the team was privatized and brought its celebrity co-owners aboard.

This trend is driving tangible value across the league. The Italian SailGP team was recently acquired by a consortium including actress Anne Hathaway at a reported valuation of $45 million, while the U.S. team is seeking investment at a valuation north of $100 million. For sponsors, this celebrity halo effect de-risks the investment in a growing sport, guaranteeing a level of public interest and media coverage that extends far beyond the sailing community.

Winning the Race on Monday

Beyond the marketing glamour, the partnership addresses a critical need in modern professional sports: the demand for flawless operational execution. The Bonds Flying Roos operate in what monday.com CMO Harris Beber described as “one of the most demanding rhythms in global sport.” The team competes in a global circuit, racing identical, high-tech 50-foot foiling catamarans that reach speeds exceeding 60 mph. Success is determined by inches and seconds, and the margin for error is non-existent.

The logistical complexity is immense. The team must manage a global calendar, coordinate travel for athletes and staff, ship and maintain state-of-the-art equipment, analyze vast amounts of performance data, and produce content for partners and fans. Centralizing these disparate workflows onto a single platform is not just a matter of convenience; it’s a competitive necessity. As Beber stated, “Their success isn’t solely defined by speed on the water, but how they run their entire operation. While they race each weekend, the entire crew begins their planning on Monday – and on monday.com.”

The integration of sophisticated work management tools represents the ongoing technological arms race in elite sports. Just as teams seek advantages through superior boat design or athlete conditioning, they are now looking to optimize every aspect of their off-water operations. The ability to streamline planning, improve communication across time zones, and make data-driven decisions faster can translate directly into a performance edge. This partnership is a testament to the fact that in modern sport, championships are often won long before the competition begins.

Sailing into the Mainstream

The strategic calculus for monday.com is bolstered by SailGP’s rapid growth and its positioning as the “F1 of the seas.” The league is successfully capturing a valuable audience that is global, affluent, and increasingly young. In its last season, SailGP reached a total broadcast audience of 193 million across more than 200 territories, a nearly 50% increase year-over-year. Events are held in iconic, high-end destinations from Abu Dhabi to Saint-Tropez, reinforcing an image of luxury and excitement.

With team valuations climbing and major long-term partners like Rolex committing to the league, SailGP is establishing itself as a premier global sports property. For a brand like monday.com, which aims to attract larger enterprise clients, sponsoring SailGP provides access to this coveted demographic in a context that is both technologically advanced and aspirational. The partnership, debuting at the upcoming Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix, places the monday.com brand directly in front of this growing global audience as the Australian team competes for a $2 million prize purse.

This convergence of celebrity ownership, cutting-edge technology, and a fast-growing luxury sports league creates a powerful new model for brand building. It demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of how to generate value not just through logos on a sail, but by embedding a brand's story into the very fabric of a high-performance organization.