Liverpool owners Fenway in talks to merge with company owned by 'Moneyball' guru

  /  autty

Liverpool owner John Henry is in talks to merge the Fenway Sports Group (FSG) parent company that controls the Premier League champions with a new company founded by ‘Moneyball’ pioneer Billy Beane with the intention of the latter building a stable of clubs around Europe.

Beane’s ‘special purpose acquisition company’, RedBall Acquisition Corp, has former Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore on its board, and he brings a wealth of experience, not least in maximising broadcasting revenues.

It is understood that RedBall are offering $1.575billion (£1.2bn) for around 20 per cent of FSG in a deal that would value FSG at $8bn. They have already raised $575million to buy other sports businesses.

Beane rose to fame via his transformation of a Major League Baseball team, the Oakland Athletics, using data analytics, in turn boiled down to the term ‘Moneyball’.

RedBall’s aim is to use the same approach with whatever sports properties they acquire.

Related: Liverpool
Latest comments
Download All Football for more comments