Liverpool owner strikes MAJOR deal with Giannis for 'UNRIVALED' venture

Fenway Sports Group (FSG), the sports conglomerate that owns Liverpool, is a significant player in the American sports world.

FSG own the Boston Red Sox, Major League Baseball’s (MLB) third most valuable franchise, as well as the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Pittsburgh Penguins, worth $1.18bn (nearly £950m).

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This is amongst a whole other series of investments and ties in the sports world. Just last week it was reported that a minority owner in FSG, Arctos Sports Partners, had themselves entered minority ownership with the National Football League’s (NFL) Buffalo Bills.

And the empire is ever expanding, with FSG shareholder - and thus part Liverpool owner - Linda Pizzuti Henry investing in new women’s basketball organisation, Unrivaled, as per the Sports Business Journal.

Liverpool owner Henry's new venture

Henry is the wife of FSG founder and Liverpool chairman John W. Henry and voiced her pro-Liverpool opinions on social media as recently as this weekend.

Now she is furthering her own stake in the sports world.

Unrivaled is an American three-on-three women’s basketball league set to have its inaugural season begin in mid-January 2025.

The league was founded by legendary Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) player Breanna Stewart and current WNBA star Napheesa Collier, partly to allow WNBA players to bypass complications from the league’s prioritisation rules for players who choose to play overseas in the WNBA offseason.

As the report states, Henry’s investment came as part of the ‘Series A investment round’ in the league. In this she was joined by the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, among others.

Amongst Unrivaled's initial investors were legendary American football stars Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe.

The league itself is set to feature numerous players that have contributed to the WNBA’s recent rise in popularity, including Angel Reese, her former college teammate Flau’jae Johnson and college star Paige Bueckers, whose battles with Iowa’s Caitlin Clark set the stage for women’s basketball’s commercial development when they were drafted to the league.

This past season, multiple teams set their all-time attendance records when playing against Clark and her Indiana Fever WNBA side, and the single all-time WNBA attendance record was set when Clark played the Washington Mystics in the final game of the season.

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