Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and two fellow billionaires have taken a stake in Liverpool Football Club, helping push the six-time European champions' valuation above $5 billion even though the club has recorded more financial losses than profits in recent years.
The investment became public days before Liverpool opened their Premier League season with a dramatic 2-2 draw at Newcastle United, salvaged in the ninth minute of stoppage time when Dominik Szoboszlai converted a penalty. The result followed a season in which Liverpool finished fifth in the league and reached the Champions League quarter-finals.
New investors join Liverpool
Days before the Newcastle match, a new investment consortium called 1892 Holdings acquired a stake in the club. Behind the group are Bezos, founder of Amazon; Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook; and British-Indian businessman Amit Bhatia. Bezos's fortune is estimated at $266.6 billion, while Saverin and Bhatia are each worth roughly $30 billion.
Media reports say the consortium bought a 38% stake in Liverpool. Fenway Sports Group, led by American businessman John Henry, remains the club's majority owner and keeps control of its day-to-day running.
The deal has sharply lifted Liverpool's valuation, with media estimates putting the club's worth at between £5 billion and £5.5 billion. Henry bought Liverpool in 2010 for £300 million, meaning his investment has grown more than sixfold even as he retains majority control, a reminder that football clubs can generate returns far beyond what conventional wisdom suggests.
Between 2010 and 2025, however, Liverpool's revenue rose less than fourfold, from £177.3 million in the 2009/10 season to £703 million in 2024/25. The club's bottom line has swung between losses and modest profits over the past five years: a £4.8 million loss in 2020/21, a £7.5 million profit in 2021/22, a £9 million loss in 2022/23, a £57 million loss in 2023/24, and an £8 million profit in 2024/25. That leaves the question of how Liverpool is now valued at roughly 18 times what Henry paid in 2010.
Limited supply, huge demand
Analysts point to several explanations. The simplest is that a football club with Liverpool's global brand functions as a luxury good. Buyers are not just acquiring revenue and profit but a name built over more than a century, along with a fan base that behaves unlike ordinary customers. Even when a club goes through a losing spell, only its least valuable supporters drift away, while the most loyal fans, who buy shirts, season tickets, television subscriptions and merchandise, tend to stay.
Ownership also carries prestige and visibility that go well beyond sport. That is clearest in the investments made by ruling families from the Gulf. Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain generate financial losses for their owners, yet the clubs have helped Abu Dhabi and Qatar narrow the distance separating them from the worlds of business and politics in Britain and France respectively, while also promoting state-owned companies such as airlines and hotels. Criticism from human rights groups has done little to dent that image.
A purely market-driven factor is also at play: a large imbalance between supply and demand. Billionaire demand for sports clubs is enormous, but the pool of clubs that offer prestige and access to elite competitions is small. Private equity funds have joined the competition for these assets too, pushing prices higher still and inflating what some see as a bubble, a pattern seen to an even greater degree in the NFL, MLB and NBA.
Billionaires betting on further growth
The billionaires involved do not believe it is a bubble. They argue that Europe's sports business is still in its early stages and that far more money can be extracted from Premier League clubs and European cup competitions. Fans outside the United States got a taste of that approach during this year's World Cup, when dynamic ticket pricing brought FIFA huge profits and advertising during so-called hydration breaks generated enormous revenue for broadcasters.
That drive toward greater commercialisation may sit behind the mild language of the official announcement, which said the new shareholders would help Liverpool pursue its business and commercial goals by drawing on experience gained in technology, media and investment.
Ripple effect across the Premier League
The arrival of new owners at Liverpool sends a strongly positive signal to the rest of English football. Bezos's name alone lends credibility to further investment in Premier League clubs, and a change of ownership at Chelsea could follow soon.
Todd Boehly and Mark Walter are discussing selling their minority stakes, 12.83% each, to Clearlake Capital, Chelsea's current majority shareholder. If the deal goes through, Boehly and Walter would leave the club and Clearlake Capital would hold 87.17% of it. Chelsea's estimated value stands at £5 billion, twice what it was worth in 2022, when Roman Abramovich sold the club.
