Bellingham offers hope that celebs can find Prem Rugby investible
Jude Bellingham has invested into cricket and it offers hope for Prem Rugby, Ollie Phillips writes.
Jude Bellingham’s £800,000 investment into Hundred franchise Birmingham Phoenix is smart money; he’s from the area, gets one per cent of a team where he will do very little heavy lifting, and diversifies his portfolio.
And it got me thinking: if I had a spare £1m, in the way the England and Real Madrid footballer has a spare £1m, which sport would I invest it into? My answer at the end of this column.
Bellingham’s move reflects a wider shift in how celebrities see sports teams as an asset class. It may not be entirely new – original Gladiator Russell Crowe has co-owned the South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL team since 2006 – but the drip has become a stream.
Bellingham in The Hundred; Michael B Jordan at AFC Bournemouth – and maybe Exeter Chiefs; Tom Brady at Birmingham City; David Beckham at Inter Miami; Kylian Mbappe and Anne Hathaway in SailGP; and Ed Sheeran at Ipswich.
Celebrity status doesn’t always mean bringing the big bucks, but it means brand value and attention where it would otherwise be lacking.
Taking the above and adapting it to rugby, the three most marketable brands, in my opinion, are Leicester Tigers – for their history and attendances – alongside champions Bath Rugby, with their location, and London club Harlequins.
But it must be a crossbreed investment – rugby players shouldn’t go into rugby and so on. Antoine Dupont’s investment in MLR side Los Angeles is already complicated, if ongoing at all, given the team has merged with a fellow Californian outfit.
Prem Rugby investment potential
And when those celebrity investors get attracted into rugby it is paramount the sport keeps them here. The sport must help them develop a story for their investment in the way Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac utilised their opportunities having purchased Wrexham.
It cannot be a one-way street, otherwise any investor will walk straight back out of the door at the first opportunity.
What I like about the Bellingham move into Birmingham is his actual interest. “I love Birmingham,” said the Black Country native, who played for local side Hagley Cricket Club.
“I’m very grateful for what the whole city of Birmingham has done for me. I love cricket as well so when I got the opportunity to get involved I didn’t really think twice about it. I’m so happy to be on board.”
Like with Reynolds and Mac there is an instant connection with the asset they’re buying into – albeit one through lived experience and the other through adopted admiration. This is hard to come by.
It is not yet fully known whether Michael B Jordan, an investor in Premier League club AFC Bournemouth, will also take a minority stake into Exeter Chiefs after the wider Black Knight group entered into negotiations with the Devonshire rugby club.
But if he does come in it would represent the wacky American investment I have been talking about for a little while, and would be a completely new sector of finance for the Prem to enjoy.
So kudos to Bellingham. We need more of him, and not just in an England shirt at the World Cup this summer.
And where would I put my spare £1m? Darts. It’s only ever seeming to be on the up and the characters – backed by Matchroom – make the sport, rather than the rules and technicalities.
Former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance. Follow Ollie @OlliePhillips11