{"id":7439,"date":"2026-04-06T14:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T14:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/7439\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T14:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T14:05:07","slug":"formula-e-owners-bid-for-nba-europes-london-franchise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/7439\/","title":{"rendered":"Formula E owners bid for NBA Europe’s London franchise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tMonday 06 April 2026 2:49 pm
\n\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMonday 06 April 2026 2:50 pm\n\t<\/p>\n

\"A\t\tFormula E\u2019s majority stakeholder has bid to buy the NBA Europe London franchise\t<\/p>\n

Formula E\u2019s majority stakeholder has bid to buy the London franchise in the upcoming NBA Europe project, according to reports.<\/p>\n

The London franchise was the most sought after team when the period to submit non-binding bids to express an interest closed last week.<\/p>\n

NBA sources stated<\/a> that they had received multiple bids of $1bn across the process.<\/p>\n

Liberty Global, the majority owner of all-electric motor racing series Formula E, has bid for the London team, according to Sky News\u2019 Mark Kleinman<\/a>, in conjunction with either investment vehicle MSP Sports Capital or one of its founders Jahm Najafi.<\/p>\n

MSP Sports Capital last year exited from McLaren in what was one of the largest returns in sporting history, with the Formula 1 team valued at \u00a34bn<\/a>, and they had reportedly held discussions with former Red Bull team principle Christian Horner about buying a minority stake in French racing team Alpine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Najafi was once the vice-chairman of the Phoenix Suns NBA team.<\/p>\n

NBA Europe on its way<\/p>\n

NBA Europe has 2027 pencilled in as its launch date, with teams set to be included from across the major basketball markets this side of the Atlantic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n

\t\t\tNBA Europe: GBBL boss Marshall Glickman in bid for London franchise<\/a><\/p>\n

Both Barcelona and Real Madrid are reportedly interested in bids while other EuroLeague sides have been looking at partnerships<\/a>. The likes of Paris, Manchester and Milan are expected to have teams.<\/p>\n

A total of 10-12 franchises will exist under the new project with a route to qualify from outside the founding members to be implemented.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have received significant interest from a range of prospective teams and investors for permanent franchise spots in a new league in Europe backed by the NBA and FIBA,\u201d said NBA deputy commissioner and chief operating officer Mark Tatum after the non-binding period closed last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe level of engagement and the scale of the bids reflect the marketplace\u2019s belief in our proposed model and the enormous, untapped potential for European basketball.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will now review the bids in more detail and shortlist the partners who share our vision and commitment to accelerating the growth of the game across the continent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liberty Global holds 50 per cent of Virgin Media O2 and a small stake in ITV as part of a wider portfolio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n

\t\t\tNBA Europe: Bids top $1bn as London team proves hottest property \u2013 sources<\/a><\/p>\n

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\t\t\tPeople & Organisations\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\tRelated Topics\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monday 06 April 2026 2:49 pm \u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0 Monday 06 April 2026 2:50 pm Formula E\u2019s majority stakeholder has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[3850,633,3852,3853,27,3854,3851,3855,3856,18,771,1507],"class_list":{"0":"post-7439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-formula-e","11":"tag-liberty-global","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-london-franchise","14":"tag-nba-basketball","15":"tag-nba-europe","16":"tag-nba-london","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-sport","19":"tag-sport-business"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116358147134246025","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}