Celebrity Investors Paving the Way for New Avenues of Funding: changing the profile of the traditional investor in football clubs

The recent influx of celebrity football club investors is reflective of the evolution of the global investment landscape, as investors with diverse backgrounds and motivations seek to gain exposure to new asset classes. Football clubs have always been a lucrative and booming business but have recently gained the attention and investment interest of celebrities, such as, LeBron James who invested $6.5 million in Liverpool FC in 2011, retired NFL star J.J. Watt who this year invested in Burnley FC, and most notably Ryan Reynolds’ and Rob McElhenney’s recent success story of Wrexham FC.