(Bloomberg) -- Five-time Olympian Shaun White is launching a professional snowboarding tour that aims to showcase the sport year round and provide greater opportunity for top riders to make money.

“It’s very clear that winter sports currently need a premier league,” White, who retired after the 2022 Olympics, said in an interview. “I’m thrilled to be providing that for the next generation of winter athletes.”

Investors in the Snow League, which begins competition in March, include David Blitzer, co-founder of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, former NFL star Larry Fitzgerald Jr., Will Ventures and Ryan Sports Ventures. The league declined to say how much it has raised. Isaiah Kacyvenski, co-founder and managing partner at Will Ventures and a former NFL player, said his firm led the league’s seed stage round with an investment of nearly $4 million.

The league aims to fill a gap in the marketplace by providing a regular schedule for athletes and viewers between Olympics. It won’t be alone in attempting to do so. The X Games, an action sports competition, announced plans last week for a “new global, team-based format” set to launch in 2026. Private equity firm MSP Sports Capital, which acquired the X Games from ESPN in 2022, said its league will have summer and winter editions with events ranging from snowboarding to skateboarding.

While White has feuded with the X Games in the past, he said his new league is not intended as a rival for other snowboarding events. “We’ve been trying to play as nice as possible with everybody,” he said, “It’s important that X sticks around.”

White hopes to shift the image of snowboarding away from its roots as an edgy, countercultural spectacle toward a more traditional sport. Each Snow League event will be a two-day tournament, with riders competing in a group stage on the first day and head-to-head on the second, a format that the league expects will make it easy for casual fans to follow. The broadcasts, said White, will focus on explaining the various tricks and their scoring.

“I’m so excited to help usher in the era of when we will no longer be action sports,” White said. “It’s sports, man.”

The league’s first competition will be held at a yet to-be-determined US venue, according to its Chief Operating Officer Ian Warda, with four additional events slated for the first season, including stops in Europe and Asia.

At the outset, the league plans to invite 20 men and 16 women to compete in halfpipe snowboarding, with other events such as slopestyle snowboarding and freestyle skiing to be added in future seasons. The total prize purse for the first season is $1.5 million, split evenly between men and women. The first place finishers at each event will earn $50,000. Every rider will be paid. The top three riders for the season, for both men and women, will split a $250,000 prize. It is, according to the league, the richest prize purse in the sport.

“This is just a starting point,” said White, “We plan on offering a lot more money in the future.”

According to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation’s (FIS) prize money standings for the 2024 season, top earning snowboarders bring in about $30,000 to $50,000 annually from its sanctioned events. Opportunities for riders to earn prize money have dwindled in recent years. The Burton US Open, an annual competition sponsored by the snowboard maker, has not returned since being cancelled due to the pandemic in 2021. White has likewise paused the Air + Style festival, a combination live music and snowboarding series he bought in 2014, since its last event in 2019. 

The Snow League has yet to find a buyer for its broadcast rights, but is in discussions with several entities, according to Chief Executive Officer Omer Atesmen. Its strategy is to partner with traditional TV networks and streaming services, he said.

The league also plans to highlight the backstories of top riders, possibly through a behind-the-scenes docuseries in the style of Formula 1’s Drive to Survive or the NFL’s Hard Knocks.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.