How crypto investment is boosting Premier League revenues

Since being founded in 1992, the Premier League has become one of the most powerful and lucrative businesses in sport, not just here in the UK but throughout the world.

The Premier League has grown to become one of the most watched sports league’s on the planet, broadcasting in over 200 territories with a potential audience in excess of 4 billion people worldwide.

This has made Premier League football an incredible ‘product’ and it’s no surprise that bosses have taken advantage to sell the product to global businesses. Football is a hugely popular sport and Premier League chiefs have used the opportunity to bring an enormous amount of money into English football.

Back in 1992 when the Premier League was launched – taking over from the old First Division – the combined value of the 20 top flight clubs was around £50m. Now, 32 years later, that figure has risen to over £10 billion! The biggest clubs such as Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City are all valued at over £1 billion each.

This upward trend is predicted to continue so it’s no surprise that some of the world’s most successful businesspeople have got involved in Premier League football through club ownership, investment or sponsorships.

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich was one of the first to see an opportunity to invest in the EPL after buying Chelsea in 2003. He bought the West London club for £140m and when he was forced to sell in 2022, Chelsea’s value had risen to an eye-watering £4 billion. Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool have all been bought by businessmen from the United States. They love their sport, but they also love making money and the valuation of all three clubs have grown exponentially over the past 20 years.

We’ve also seen entire countries getting involved in the Premier League, with the Abu Dhabi Group purchasing Manchester City back in 2008 while the Saudi-backed PIF buying Newcastle United in recent years.

Crypto investment

Key to the financial success of these clubs is their commercial activities, with huge investment coming in from abroad. Cryptocurrency has been one of the fastest growing industries over the past decade with wealthy investors pumping billions into the technology, so it’s no surprise to see crypto companies entering the market within the Premier League.

Several crypto companies are now sponsors of top flight English clubs with millions of pounds of sponsorship money flowing into the game. Socios is linked with a number of Premier League clubs while investment platform eToro has a partnership with Arsenal, West Ham and Crystal Palace. BingX is a sponsor of Chelsea while Tezos has partnered with Manchester United.

Manchester City, Arsenal and Everton all have three crypto sponsors, while Tottenham and Newcastle are among the clubs to boast two crypto sponsors. The number of crypto companies investing in the Premier League is growing each year with the likes of ION mining tipped to be the next to dip their toe into sponsorship within the EPL.

TV rights

There is no doubt the Premier League has been a huge commercial success, and while the investment from big corp has helped, another key reason has been the explosion in valuation of the television rights.

In 1992, Sky bought the rights to broadcast Premier League football in a. five season deal worth £304m – which was the biggest TV package deal in British sporting history. Rivals such as BT and Amazon entered the bidding, which has pushed the value of the deals higher.

The latest deal agreed was worth a staggering £6.7 billion, an increase of £1.7 billion from the existing package. The deal will run for four seasons from 2025/26, and exemplifies just how lucrative Premier League football has become.

Looking at rival league’s in Europe, the German Bundesliga’s TV deal is worth £3.8 billion, the Italian Serie A is £3.9 billion while the Spanish La Liga deal is £4.3 billion. Huge numbers, but they pale in comparison to the Premier League.

With Premier League football more popular than ever, with global audiences growing every year, analysts predict the success of the product to continue over the coming years.