How the Premier League became one of the most lucrative businesses in sport

Since its foundation in 1992, the Premier League has grown to become one of the most successful and lucrative businesses in global sport.

After replacing the old Football League 32 years ago, the Premier League has gone from strength to strength and is now the most watched sports league in the world. It is broadcasted is 212 territories to 643 million homes, with a potential TV audience of over 4 billion people.

Key to the Premier League’s vision when they took over in 1992 was to create a ‘product’ that they could sell worldwide. The ambition wasn’t necessarily to make English football better, as the businessmen in charge knew there was money to be made from the popularity of football. And it’s safe to say the project has been a monumental success so far.

The combined value of the 20 Premier League clubs in 1992 was just £50 million, now it’s well over £10 billion and business platform businesspossible.co.uk predicts this upward trend to continue over the coming years. Top clubs such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester City are all valued at well over £1 billion each. The ‘big 6’ – as they are affectionately known – are some of the most popular sports clubs in the world with millions of adoring fans around the globe, and their value is expected to increase as they develop their brands further.

Attract big businessmen

With the Premier League becoming so successful, it’s no wonder clubs have caught the eye of multi millionaire, and even billionaire, businessman. Club owners now come from all backgrounds in business, with whole countries now entering the fray to become owners within the Premier League.

When the Abu Dhabi Group bought Manchester City in 2008, they made it clear they were no longer just a football club. The aim was to be a sports entertainment media company, and to grown as part of a multi-club brand that would be a household name all around the world. This vision has been adopted by several other top Premier League clubs, with Newcastle United the latest to be snapped up by Saudi-backed PIF.

The likes of Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool are all owned by billionaire businessmen from the United States. Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich was the first foreign billionaire to buy a Premier League club when he bought Chelsea for £140m in 2003. By the time he was forced to sell-up in 2022 to Todd-Boehly and his consortium, the London club was valued at over £4 billion.

Crypto companies like KK Miner next?

As the Premier League continues to grow, many analysts think it’s only a matter of time before a billionaire linked to crypto currency looks to get in on the action by buying a top tier club. Crypto is now huge business worldwide and has attracted billions from wealthy investors, with many believing the likes of Bitcoin are the future of money and investment strategies.

With so much money flowing into crypto currency in recent years, we could see businessmen from companies like KK Miner dip their foot into Premier League club ownership. KK Miner is one of the earliest companies in the world to provide cloud mining services. It was founded in September 2016 and is headquartered in the UK. After years of development, it currently has 57 mining farms around the world, with members in more than 157 countries and regions, and is trusted by more than 5.7 million users worldwide. Anyone interested in cloud mining can visit https://kkminer.com/ to find out more.

The company is going from strength to strength and the owners could be the latest wealthy investors to be attracted to the idea of owning a Premier League club with a growing number of crypo companies getting involved with football.

Premier League a commercial success

Over the last 32 years, the Premier League has developed into the most popular and watched sports product in the world, backed by billionaires from all across the globe, so it’s been a huge commercial success.

One of the key parts of that success has been selling the TV rights for Premier League games. After the Premier League was founded in 1992, Sky bought the rights to the first five seasons for £304 million. At the time, that was the biggest TV deal in the history of British sport. Sky’s subscription business was so successful, that it attracted rival’s such as BT Sport and Amazon, which has pushed the value of the deals higher.

The latest TV deal was worth a staggering £6.7 billion – up from £5 billion from the last deal – which will run over four years from the 2025/26 season. More games are being broadcast than ever before, which partially explains why the TV rights deals are worth so much now, but it’s also clear that Premier League football is big business.

Competitor league’s in Europe fall well short of Premier League numbers. The latest deal in La Liga, Spain, is worth around £4.3 billion. In Italy, the Serie A deal is worth £3.9 billion while the German Bundesliga is £3.8 billion.

The Premier League dominates the business side of things compared to rival league’s, and that trend is expected to continue over the coming years. Premier League clubs are now some of the most valuable and successful in the world, and the ‘product’ is tipped for a bright future with clubs now a regular part of a businessman’s portfolio.