In 2011, LeBron James skipped a cash payout and took a 2% slice of Liverpool instead. Today, that slice would be worth about $124 million.
He no longer owns those shares. He swapped them in 2021 for a stake in the club’s owner, Fenway Sports Group. So that number is a what-if on the 2% he gave up.
How the Liverpool Stake Began
James paid no cash for the stake. In 2011, he and business partner Maverick Carter made a marketing deal with Fenway Sports Group. Fenway owns Liverpool, and it agreed to run his marketing worldwide. In return, he got 2% of the club. It was worth about $6.5 million back then.
The timing was perfect. Fenway had bought Liverpool just a year earlier, in October 2010. It paid about £300 million. The club was deep in debt. That forced a cheap sale by its owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett.
From Liverpool to the Fenway Empire
Forbes now values Liverpool at $6.2 billion. That makes it the fourth most valuable club in world soccer. So the old 2% would be worth about $124 million today. That is roughly 19 times what he started with.
James did not stop there. In 2021, he and Carter swapped the Liverpool stake for about 1% of all of Fenway. That made them the group’s first Black partners. A 2023 deal handed them even more.
How big is Fenway? In 2021, investment firm RedBird Capital paid $750 million for about 10% of it. That puts the group’s value in the billions.
All of this came long before crypto reached sports. Now fans can buy digital player tokens and team fan tokens on the blockchain.
But LeBron won by waiting, not by trading fast. Many sports fan tokens promise quick gains and flop. Can the 2026 World Cup coins match his patience? It is too soon to tell.
Bitrue