Jeff Bezos has taken his first serious step into elite sports ownership.
The Amazon founder has joined a consortium of investors ready to buy a stake in the English soccer team Liverpool, a source familiar with the matter has told the Daily Beast.
The source told the Beast that Bezos, and those around him, are keen on the plan, which would involve Bezos and other investors owning 30 percent of Liverpool Football Club but is still in its early stages.
The consortium is led by Amit Bhatia, the son-in-law of billionaire steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal. Bhatia is already a co-owner, alongside Mittal, of Queens Park Rangers F.C., a team from London which plays in the English second division. Mittal posed with Donald Trump at the World Cup Final and is donating the steel to build the president’s tacky White House ballroom.
The Beast’s revelation about Bezos goes far beyond a previous report that Bhatia had approached the centi-billionaire, who has previously toyed with bidding for major U.S. sports franchises.
Bezos, the fourth-richest man in the world, worth almost $257 billion, has never owned a sports team, though Amazon has held the TV rights to top-level soccer games in the U.K.
In 2023, reports surfaced that Bezos was ready to buy the Washington Commanders in the NFL. He also reportedly explored a bid for the Seattle Seahawks, this year’s Super Bowl winners. However, he never bid for either franchise.
Liverpool F.C. is one of the most storied teams in England, with perhaps the most loyal and raucous support as fans pack out its Anfield stadium. LFC has been crowned champions of England on a record 20 occasions, most recently in the 2024-25 season. The club has enjoyed elite continental success, too, winning Europe’s top club trophy six times.
But the club’s left-wing heritage, molded in the 1960s by the legendary Scottish manager Bill Shankly—who put the team in their all-red kit and treated teamwork as a form of socialism—may sit uneasily with the increasingly Trumpy billionaire.
The 62-year-old has been criticized for his stewardship of the Washington Post, which he bought for $250 million in 2013. The newspaper has seen major restructuring and staff layoffs and its opinion pages have been taken sharply to the right as Bezos reacts to Donald Trump’s demands for fealty from Silicon Valley.
Bezos’ decision to throw at least $75 million into a vanity documentary about Melania Trump—much of which went directly into the first lady’s pocket—added to the perception that the Amazon boss was on Trump’s side.
“The Reds” have enjoyed, or endured, American leadership in the past.
U.S. businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks became the owners of the club in 2007, halfway through the 2006–07 Premier League season.
Hicks owned the Dallas Stars ice hockey club and the Texas Rangers baseball team at the time. Gillett was the owner of the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team.
The pair presided over a fallow period on the field for LFC. Things weren’t good at board level, either. Soccer fans are quick to vent their frustrations at club ownership if results are not good on the field.
At the start of the 2010–11 season, Liverpool was on the brink of bankruptcy, and the club’s creditors asked the High Court to approve a sale despite the objections of owners, Hicks and Gillett. John W. Henry, the owner of the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports Group (FSG), submitted the winning bid, valued at $350 million, and completed a takeover of the club in October 2010.
In September 2023, FSG sold a minority stake to the U.S. private equity firm Dynasty Equity. “We have always said that if there is an investment partner that is right for Liverpool then we would pursue the opportunity to help ensure the club’s long-term financial resiliency and future growth,” FSG president Mike Gordon said after the deal.
A sale of 30 percent of the club at its current valuation would mark a staggering return on FSG’s $350 million investment. Indeed, it could mark the beginning of a full takeover as deals like this usually include an option for a buyer to purchase more in the future.
This could mean that the group could eventually come to control the club, with Bezos in a powerful role. But the deal is currently in its infancy, with many regulatory hurdles in the consortium’s way even if it is greenlit.
This “comes with an air of trepidation,” according to Dan Clubbe, an LFC reporter at influential fan site Redmen TV.
He said he expects a “divide” among fans regarding Bezos’s potential involvement. “This is a very socialist city. We have very strong beliefs about the way things should be done, right and wrong. I think there will be pushback. I think there will be some anger in certain quarters,” he said.
“I’m absolutely convinced that there would be genuine and legitimate calls for alarm and a genuine and legitimate pushback and negative response to this ownership group.”
Clubbe added that it is nevertheless “fanciful” to suggest that a local owner would have the same spending power as a mega-rich consortium and that the sport has entered a new economic epoch.
“With the riches involved in order to sustain and keep up with Joneses in this market, I have been curious as to what their next move might be,” he said of the current owners.
He argued that the news might come as an unwelcome distraction, too, with the first game of Liverpool’s season just over a month away.
News of Bezos’ interest was first reported by the Financial Times on Tuesday. It reported the potential deal was for a “significant minority stake.”
Reports indicate that the value of the club is considered to be around $6 billion; however, a well-informed source has indicated to the Beast that the value of the deal is even higher than what has been reported.
But even if more conservative reports prove to be accurate, this would still far surpass the 2022 acquisition of London club Chelsea by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital. That deal was worth $5.4 billion.
It looks like Bhatia’s consortium means business. He stepped back from control of his stake in Championship side Queens Park Rangers earlier this week, clearing a potential hurdle under Premier League ownership rules ahead of his consortium’s proposed investment in Liverpool.
FSG confirmed the potential deal, declaring in a statement that the mega-rich group “expressed interest in making a strategic minority investment.” However, people familiar with the talks told the FT that a deal is not a certainty.
Liverpool F.C., Bezos, and Bhatia have been approached for comment.
