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

Edward Craven, who is 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 the Alfa Romeo title from last year.

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

Fans of any team across sports always hope their club chiefs have plenty of money, along with the best interests of their team at heart.  

But, as we have increasingly seen in recent times, that doesn’t always come with experience and in light of Craven’s takeover, Mail Sport profiles some of the youngest sports team owners around the globe. 

Australian billionaire Jack Craven, 28, completed a takeover of the Sauber F1 team last week

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

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Edward Craven, 28 – Sauber F1 team

Given we have 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 firm Stake.com having formed the company with his business partner Bijan Tehrani in 2017.

Stake expanded to the UK in December 2021 and has been the main shirt sponsor for both Everton and Watford in recent years. 

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

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

Stake.com are the main sponsor of Premier League club Everton and have sponsored Watford

According to The Australian, Craven and Tehrani’s business empire generates an average of $US400m (£315m) every day, mainly due to its online casino and sports betting business.

The pair are based in Melbourne and applied for a bookmaking licence in the Northern Territory. At present, Stake.com is domiciled in Curacao due to gambling using cryptocurrency via online casinos being banned in Australia. 

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

In light of his track record, you wouldn’t put it past Craven shaking up the sport. 

 

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, 26 – Sunderland

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

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 £4billion.

The 26-year-old also has a Harvard MBA and training in football administration and his mother, Margarita, chairs 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 expanded his ownership to a 64 per cent share.

He is reported to have a trust fund worth £2bn, 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 interest 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 with 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 received criticism from fans for replacing the popular Tony Mowbray as manager with Michael Beale last year, while he was also at the centre of a PR disaster ahead of last weekend’s Tyne-Wear derby against Newcastle.

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

 

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

Quarterback Patrick Mahomes is an NFL superstar, twice winning the Super Bowl, while he has also been crowned the Super Bowl MVP on two occasions.

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

Despite only joining as a minority owner, baseball is close to Mahomes’ heart after he played the sport during his time at university before he focused on college football. 

Mahomes – who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs – has since also invested in MLS side Sporting Kansas City, NWSL side Kansas City Current and an as-of-yet unclassified upcoming professional pickleball team that is based in Miami. Other famous investors include the likes of 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 the MLS’ Sporting Kansas City, NWSL side Kansas City Current and an upcoming pickleball team

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

This runs all the way through to 2031 and could be worth $503m (£396m) to the now 28-year-old if certain bonuses are met, and this is likely to provide much of the finance behind his ownership ventures. 

 

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 tales of youthful football ownership, the seven above-mentioned school friends took the decision to scrape together their student loans and buy non-league Surrey-based club Walton and Hersham in 2019. 

The club were about to be 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 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 put in ‘a couple of thousand of pounds each’ – having overseen incredible progress on and off the pitch.

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

Walton and newest no deposit online casino Hersham FC have built up their TikTok following to a mammoth 1.1million people, with the seven young owners helping to drive exponential growth off the pitch

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