eBusiness Weekly
The Mumbai Indians lost more than half of their cricket matches last year during the 11th season of the Indian Premier League. It was a disappointing finish for one of the most successful teams in the history of the IPL: The Indians had previously racked up three league titles.
But while the results on the field lagged, 2018 was another banner year for Mukesh Ambani, who owns the Indians through his Reliance Industries. Ambani increased his net worth by US$10 billion, to US$50 billion, over the past 12 months, and it has more than doubled over the past two years. He is the 13th-richest person on the planet, the richest person in India and the richest sports team owner.
Ambani runs $60-billion-in-revenue oil and gas giant Reliance. The company was founded by Ambani’s late father, Dhirubhai, in 1966 as a small textile manufacturer. The company expanded into oil and gas, refining, retail and telecom.
The company’s Jio phone service has signed on 280 million customers by offering free domestic voice calls, dirt-cheap data services and virtually free smartphones. The firm’s stock soared 35 percent over the last year, pushing Ambani’s net worth up.
Ambani bucked the trend of many billionaires who took it on the chin this year, relatively speaking. By Forbes’ latest count, there are 2,153 billionaires, with a combined net worth of US$8,7 trillion. The total number of billionaires and their total wealth shrank for only the second time in the past 10 years. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos topped the annual Forbes billionaires list for the second straight year, with a current fortune of US$131 billion.
The richest sports team owners fared slightly better than billionaires as a whole. The top 20 richest owners featured 13 rising fortunes, two static and five decliners. There are 58 billionaire owners of teams in major sports leagues around the world who are the majority shareholder or managing partner of a team. They collectively own 70 teams and are worth a combined US$359 billion.
Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer remains the second-richest sports team owner in the world and the wealthiest owner of an American sports team. His net worth rose 7 percent to US$41,2 billion during the past year. The longtime Microsoft CEO, who bought the Clippers in 2014, has kept most his shares in the software giant after retiring as CEO in 2014, and the strategy has paid off. Microsoft’s stock has doubled over the past four years, and so has Ballmer’s net worth.
Ballmer has ramped up his philanthropy since 2014, putting over US$2 billion into a donor-advised fund, with a focus on lifting Americans out of poverty.
Red Bull billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz is the third-richest team owner, at US$18,9 billion. In 1987, he co-founded the company behind the ubiquitous energy drink, which sold 6,8 billion cans last year. Mateschitz’s current stake in the company is 49 percent.
Red Bull owns three sports teams, and all serve as marketing opportunities for the core business. The company owns the New York Red Bulls in MLS, as well as Formula One teams Red Bull Racing and Red Bull Toro Ross Honda.
Rounding out the five richest sports team owners are San Jose Sharks owner Hasso Plattner (US$13,5 billion) and Chelsea’s Roman Abramovich (US$12,4 billion).
Notable drop-offs from the rolls of billionaires in sports include Paul Allen, Richard Devos and Tom Benson. The three longtime sports owners, who cumulatively owned five NBA and NFL teams, all died over the past 12 months.
Newcomers to the richest sports team owners list include David Tepper and Robert Pera. Tepper, a hedge fund titan and longtime minority shareholder in the Pittsburgh Steelers, bought the Carolina Panthers from Jerry Richardson for US$2,3 billion in July (Tepper still needs to divest his share in the Steelers per league rules). After Allen’s death, Tepper is the NFL’s richest NFL owner, at US$11,6 billion, and the sixth-richest team owner in the world.
Pera originally bought the Memphis Grizzlies in 2012 with partners Stephen Kaplan and Daniel Straus. Pera bought out his two main partners last year in a deal that valued the club at US$1,3 billion. The Grizzlies are headed for a second straight losing season, but Pera’s net worth jumped 60 percent, to US$6,9 billion, thanks to a surge in the stock price of the networking gear company he founded, Ubiquiti Networks.
Overall, there are 106 sports teams around the world worth at least US$1 billion. Of course, not everyone in the owner’s suite is a billionaire, as debt and minority ownership knock the numbers down.
The names below are based on the Forbes billionaires list, which does not include families or royal fortunes unless we can clearly see who owns the fortunes. This prevents Manchester City owner Sheik Mansour from making the cut.
1. (No. 13 overall) Mukesh Ambani
Net worth: US$50 billion
Sources of wealth: Petrochemicals, oil & gas
Team: Mumbai Indians
2. (19) Steve Ballmer
Net worth: US$41,2 billion
Source of wealth: Microsoft
Team: Los Angeles Clippers
3. (53) Dietrich Mateschitz
Net worth: US$18,9 billion
Source of wealth: Red Bull
Teams: New York Red Bulls, Red Bull Racing, Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda
4. (94) Hasso Plattner & family
Net worth: US$13,5 billion
Source of wealth: Software
Team: San Jose Sharks
5. (107) Roman Abramovich
Net worth: US$12,4 billion
Sources of wealth: Steel, investments
Team: Chelsea FC
6. (118) David Tepper
Net worth: US$11,6 billion
Sources of wealth: hedge funds
Team: Carolina Panthers
7. (128) Philip Anschutz
Net worth: US$10,9 billion
Source of wealth: Investments
Teams: Los Angeles Kings, LA Galaxy
8. (139) Mikhail Prokhorov
Net worth: US$9,8 billion
Source of wealth: Investments
Team: Brooklyn Nets
9. (162) Micky Arison
Net worth: US$8,9 billion
Source of wealth: Carnival Cruises
Team: Miami Heat
10. (167) Stanley Kroenke
Net worth: US$8,7 billion
Sources of wealth: Sports, real estate
Teams: Los Angeles Rams, Arsenal, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Rapids
11. (191) Stephen Ross
Net worth: US$7,6 billion
Source of wealth: Real estate
Team: Miami Dolphins
12. (215) Robert Pera
Net worth: US$6,9 billion
Source of wealth: wireless networking gear
Team: Memphis Grizzlies
13. (224) Jerry Jones
Net worth: US$6,8 billion
Source of wealth: Dallas Cowboys
Team: Cowboys
13. (224) Shahid Khan
Net worth: US$6,8 billion
Source of wealth: Auto parts
Team: Jacksonville Jaguars
15. (233) Daniel Gilbert
Net worth: US$6,7 billion
Source of wealth: Quicken Loans
Team: Cleveland Cavaliers
16. (244) Robert Kraft
Net worth: US$6,5 billion
Source of wealth: New England Patriots
Teams: Patriots, New England Revolution
17. (290) Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha & family
Net worth: US$5,9 billion
Source of wealth: Duty-free
Team: Leicester City
18. (355) Charles Johnson
Net worth: US$5 billion
Source of wealth: Money management
Team: San Francisco Giants
18. (355) Joe Lewis
Net worth: US$5 billion
Source of wealth: Investments
Team: Tottenham Hotspur
20. (365) Ted Lerner
Net worth: US$4,9 billion
Source of wealth: real estate
Team: Washington Nationals. — forbes.com
