The youngest sports team owners from a F1 crypto billionaire to a bunch of teens who bought a club with their student loans

A 28-year-old Australian crypto billionaire made history last week when he became the youngest ever owner of an F1 team.

Edward Craven, his country’s youngest billionaire, completed a takeover of the Sauber F1 team, before revealing it would be renamed Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber for the 2024 season, replacing last year’s Alfa Romeo title .

Craven’s purchase sent shockwaves through the sport, with most of the owners of the other F1 teams equally wealthy but far more experienced in life and business.

Fans of any team in any sport always hope that their club chiefs have enough money, and that the interests of their team come first.

But as we’ve seen more and more recently, that doesn’t always come with experience and in light of the Craven acquisition, Mailsport profiles some of the youngest sports team owners in the world.

He previously sponsored the team, known as Alfa Romeo, and it will be renamed Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber for the 2024 season

Edward Craven, 28 – Sauber F1 Team

Since we’ve already briefly introduced Craven, it seems appropriate to start with the Australian.

The 28-year-old has an intriguing background in cryptocurrency and gambling. He owns crypto and gambling company Stake.com after co-founding the company with his business partner Bijan Tehrani in 2017.

Stake expanded to the United Kingdom in December 2021 and has been the main shirt sponsor of both Everton and Watford in recent years.

The company has endorsement partnerships with the likes of Drake and UFC star Israel Adesanya, while Craven also launched streaming platform Kick.com in 2022, which competes with Amazon-owned Twitch.

Ed Craven, pictured with UFC star Israel Adesanya, owns crypto and gambling company Stake.com

Stake.com is the main sponsor of Premier League club Everton and has sponsored Watford

According to The Australian, Craven and Tehrani’s business empire generates an average of $400 million every day, mainly from online casino and sports betting.

The pair are based in Melbourne and have applied for a bookmaking license in the Northern Territory. Currently, Stake.com is based in Curaçao because gambling using cryptocurrency through online casinos is prohibited in Australia.

As mentioned, Stake was previously a sponsor of the Alfa Romeo F1 team, and now they will be renamed Stake F1 team from 2024.

Given his track record, you wouldn’t put it past that Craven is shaking up the sport.

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, 26 – Sunderland

It feels like Kyril Louis-Dreyfus was always destined to become a football club owner.

The son of the late French businessman Robert Louis-Dreyfus, who owned Marseille and helped the French side re-emerge as a major force after they were rocked by a match-fixing scandal in the 1990s, Kyril is heir to a family fortune of more than £4 billion.

The 26-year-old also has a Harvard MBA and training in football administration and his mother, Margarita, is chairman of the Louis-Dreyfus group

He acquired a controlling stake in Sunderland in 2021 at the age of 23, becoming the youngest chairman in English football history. Louis-Dreyfus has since increased his ownership to a 64 percent share.

He is said to have a trust fund worth £2 billion, while he is friends with several famous footballers and stars such as Lewis Hamilton and Ousmane Dembele.

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus became English football’s youngest owner with his purchase of a controlling stake in Sunderland in 2021 at the age of 23

Louis-Dreyfus’ with his mother Margarita (right). The family owned Marseille until 2016

Louis-Dreyfus has made impressive progress during his three years at Sunderland, overseeing their promotion to the Championship in his first full season at the helm before they reached the play-offs last season.

However, he has attracted criticism from fans for replacing the popular Tony Mowbray as manager with Michael Beale last year, while also being at the center of a PR disaster ahead of last weekend’s Tyne-Wear derby against Newcastle.

Kyril is regularly seen in the director’s box watching at the Stadium of Light and the Swiss-French businessman has big ambitions for the Black Cats.

Patrick Mahomes, 28 – Kansas City Royals, Sporting Kansas City and Kansas City Current

Quarterback Patrick Mahomes is an NFL superstar, having won the Super Bowl twice, while also being crowned Super Bowl MVP twice.

Although best known for his on-field exploits, the 28-year-old made history in 2020 when he became the youngest owner in sports history at the age of 24 after purchasing a stake in the baseball team, the Kansas City Royals.

Despite only joining as a minority owner, baseball is close to Mahomes’ heart after playing the sport during his time in college before focusing on college football.

Mahomes – who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs – has also since invested in MLS side Sporting Kansas City, NWSL side Kansas City Current and an unclassified upcoming professional pickleball team based in Miami. Other well-known investors include Nick Kyrgios and Naomi Osaka.

NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes became the youngest owner in sports history at the age of 24

After purchasing a stake in baseball team the Kansas City Royals, he also invested in Sporting Kansas City of the MLS, Kansas City Current of the NWSL and an upcoming pickleball team.

As one of the NFL’s top stars, Mahomes has been rewarded handsomely. He was first picked up by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2017 and signed a 10-year contract extension in July 2020.

This extends until 2031 and could be worth US$503 million ($396 million) to the now 28-year-old if certain bonuses are met, and will likely provide much of the funding behind his ownership business.

Jack Newton, Calogero Scannella, Sartej Tucker, Thomas Bradbury, Ben Madelin, Stephan Karidi and Reme Edetanlen, 19 – Walton and Hersham FC

In one of the most remarkable stories of youthful football ownership, the seven aforementioned school friends made the decision to scrape together their student loans and buy Surrey-based club Walton and Hersham in 2019.

The club was on the verge of being relegated to the 10th tier of English football when the group got wind of long-term owner Alan Smith’s intention to sell.

They decided to get involved and put together a document that they presented to Smith, outlining their plans for the club.

Four-and-a-half years and three promotions later and things couldn’t have gone better, with the seven youngsters – who have since revealed they’ve deposited ‘a few thousand pounds each’ – overseeing incredible progress at times. the field.

Sartej Tucker is part of a group of seven friends who scraped together their student loans to take over Walton and Hersham FC

Walton and Hersham FC have built their TikTok following to a whopping 1.1 million people, with the seven young owners helping to drive exponential growth off the pitch

They currently sit eighth in the Southern League Premier South division, which is step three of the non-league pyramid, but it is elsewhere where the real growth has taken place.

Documenting their journey as the ‘youngest owners in world football’, the media attention has been enormous, with the club’s TikTok channel comprising a whopping 1.1 million followers.

Shirts have been sold all over the world and the club offers matchday vlogs and behind-the-scenes clips on their account, which has grown their following.

Big things are happening at Walton and Hersham, with plans to reach the National League South by the end of 2027.