Jeff Bezos-backed group agrees to buy roughly a third of Liverpool
Liverpool's owners agreed on 14 August 2026 to sell around a third of the club to a consortium that includes Jeff Bezos, Fenway Sports Group said, entering a "definitive agreement" for a "strategic minority investment" in 1892 Holdings.
The consortium is led by British-Indian businessman Amit Bhatia and also includes Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin; Bhatia is set to become Liverpool's vice-chairman and will join an expanded board pending regulatory approval. Bezos will not join Liverpool's board directly, but his investment vehicle K5 Sports is participating and Bryan Baum, founder of K5 Sports, will take a seat on the Anfield board alongside Saverin's wife Elaine. The deal is said to value the club between £5bn and £6bn.
FSG said the investment "supports Liverpool's long-term growth ambitions by bringing together experts from across global business, technology, and investment" and added that "the consortium partners will work with FSG and the club's leadership team to evaluate opportunities that enhance the club's objectives on and off the pitch." The club has been told the transaction will have no impact on the transfer window and that there is no new or separate transfer budget associated with the investment.
Fenway Sports Group, which bought Liverpool in a £300m deal in 2010, previously sold a minority stake to global sports investment firm Dynasty Equity and has facilitated intra-group loans of about £218m, meaning a total outlay of about £518m. When the proposed sale of 30% completes, FSG would receive in excess of £1.5bn, roughly five times the value when the group bought the club from Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and Billy Hogan said the club was at risk in 2010, describing it as "literally on the brink of bankruptcy." Football finance expert Kieran Maguire told BBC Sport: "It's a great deal for FSG. They generate more than £1bn from the deal and still keep control - this represents the best of both worlds."
Liverpool's commercial and sporting growth includes being named the top-earning Premier League club in January by Deloitte and recording revenues of £703m for the 2024-25 financial year. Off-the-pitch investments cited in the transaction narrative include building a new training ground and redeveloping the stadium, while on-field achievements referenced by the club include ending a 30-year title drought in 2019-20, winning the Premier League again in 2024-25 and claiming a sixth Champions League in 2019.
Jeff Bezos is described in the statement as the fourth-richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $256bn (£192bn), and the deal represents his first confirmed foray into sports ownership. The article lists other Bezos interests: Blue Origin, Nash Holdings, the Washington Post, and his Prometheus artificial intelligence company, which last month invested £330m in a British AI start-up; it also notes he filed to sell 15 million Amazon shares with a market value of about £3.1bn, a sum described as double the value of the consortium's offer for a stake in Liverpool. Eduardo Saverin is reported as worth $32bn (£23.7bn).
Supporter groups and individual fans have raised questions about the investment. Spirit of Shankly recalled its "Not a Pound in the Ground" campaign, which it launched when FSG attempted to raise season-ticket prices and which it says forced the club to cut the size of the planned increase; an SOS spokesperson asked: "We would like to know what the buying consortium will get in return for their 30% stake," adding, "Does this potential consortium have the best interests of the club at the forefront or is it a 'trophy' buy?" Season-ticket holder Gareth Roberts told BBC Sport: "How Amazon have treated unions and workers isn't particularly palatable," and asked, "Is he simply going to ramp up the name of Liverpool in order to make as much money as possible?" The coverage also cites a Trades Union Congress report from 2020 that highlighted "long, gruelling shifts with unreasonable productivity targets and unfair shift patterns" and "unacceptable working conditions," and notes that in 2024 more than 200 workers took part in two days of strike action at the Amazon site in Birmingham; Amazon said it regularly reviews its pay.
FSG said it "continues to retain majority ownership and operational control of Liverpool," and the next formal steps in the process are regulatory approval and completion of board changes that would see Amit Bhatia join as vice-chairman and Bryan Baum and Elaine Saverin take seats on the club's board once approvals are secured.
