A consortium that includes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is close to finalizing an agreement to acquire roughly one-third of Liverpool Football Club, according to multiple reports on Monday. The deal, which could be announced as soon as this week by the club's controlling owner, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), would value the Premier League side at approximately £4.4 billion ($5.9 billion), making it one of the most expensive transactions in professional sports history.
The investor group is led by Amit Bhatia, a businessman and son-in-law of steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, and also includes Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, as reported by Reuters. Bhatia previously held a stake in Queens Park Rangers, a second-tier English club. Neither Liverpool nor FSG has commented publicly on the reports, which were first surfaced by Sky News.
Bezos, whose net worth is estimated at around $280 billion, has not previously been linked to sports ownership despite being the world's third-richest person. Saverin, with a fortune of roughly $32 billion to $33 billion per Forbes, was part of a group that unsuccessfully bid for Chelsea during that club's 2022 sale. The deal would mark a significant escalation in the involvement of ultra-high-net-worth individuals in legacy European football franchises.
The valuation represents a sharp appreciation from FSG's 2010 acquisition of Liverpool, which was reportedly completed for about £300 million. The club's on-field performance has been mixed recently: Liverpool won the Premier League last season but has since lost manager Arne Slot and forward Mohamed Salah. Michael Edwards, the architect of the squad that delivered Liverpool's first league title in 30 years in 2020, left his role as FSG's chief executive of football in July, according to Reuters.
The Liverpool deal is part of a broader trend of wealthy investors treating sports teams as core portfolio assets. JPMorgan Private Bank's 2025 Principal Discussions Report, which surveyed 111 billionaire family-office principals with a combined net worth exceeding $500 billion, found that 20% now hold controlling stakes in sports teams, up from just 6% in 2022. About a third of those families have invested in sports teams or stadiums, a share that now exceeds their allocations to fine art and classic cars.
Financial returns have been compelling. The Ross-Arctos Sports Franchise Index, a collaboration between Arctos Partners and the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, shows major North American sports franchises generated annualized returns of 13.2% over the past two decades and 16.9% over the past year alone, outpacing most other asset classes tracked. This performance has prompted institutions like Citi Private Bank to build dedicated sports advisory practices, with John Hutcheson leading efforts to connect buyers and sellers of sports assets across banking and wealth management.
However, the expansion of private equity into sports has not been universally welcomed. Late last month, FIFA president Gianni Infantino faced backlash after proposing to sell stakes in future World Cup profits, drawing criticism from soccer associations across Asia, Europe, and North America. Infantino later withdrew the plan, stating that the project had created divisions that were no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place.
For financial advisors, the growing interest in sports assets presents both opportunities and challenges. As sports investing gains traction, advisors may need to consider how to incorporate such illiquid, high-return assets into client portfolios. The trend also highlights the importance of private equity deals in the RIA space, as firms seek to capitalize on the growing appetite for alternative investments.
