Celebrities' Sporty Investments

Hope you had a great weekend. I expect for some of you, a great weekend includes watching a game on the couch with snacks, a cold beverage, and your feet up. Today we’re going to keep on that theme with a look at the wacky world of celebrity sports team owners. Game on!

Let’s start with some stats. Jennifer Lopez is 52 years old, has starred in 32 movies (including two to be released this year), has 30 fragrances tied to her celebrity, and, up until her divorce from Marc Anthony, was a minority owner in Miami Dolphin’s football franchise.

    

Here are five other celebrities using their star power to recruit star players. 

#1. Justin Timberlake is a Memphis hometown hero and partial owner of the Memphis Grizzlies NBA basketball team worth $1.5BN.

#2. Bill Maher, the opinionated talk show host, contributed $20MM for a stake in the New York Mets after the Wilpon family lost big in the Bernie Madoff scandal. He tripled his investment when ownership changed hands again in 2020.

#3. Usher knows a thing or two about fancy footwork, something he expects from his team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. He paid about $9MM in 2005 for a minority stake of the team, now worth $1.65BN.

#4. Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s marriage may be open, but their majority ownership stake in the Philadelphia 76ers is a closed deal. The basketball team is worth nearly $2.5BN.

#5 Venturing out of America’s favorite pastime, and his own sport of expertise, Lebron James traveled across the pond for his minority stake in Liverpool Football Club. He and his business partner Maverick Carter paid about $6.5MM for a 2% stake in the club now worth $4.1BN. Score.

For more celebrity-owned sports teams, check out this article and our database of team financials.