Open your phone. Take look at social media. Within a minute’s scrolling, you’ll see an egomaniacal billionaire posturing as a ‘brand’. But not West Ham co-owner Daniel Kretinsky – that’s not his style.
At the time of writing, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index has Kretinsky as the 313th richest person in the world. His wealth is up about £1.8bn this year alone. There aren’t many who’ve had a better 2025 to date.
West Ham, in whom Kretinsky bought a 27 per cent stake that valued the club between £600m and £800m in 2021, ultimately make up a tiny portion of his £7bn portfolio.
Photo by Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images
His imminent buyout of the Royal Mail, for example, will be worth £3.6bn, which is more than any football takeover or finance deal in history.
After TBR Football reported in March that Kretinsky is open to selling his 27 per cent stake in West Ham, some reports suggested the club is worth two or three times what he paid three-and-a-half years ago.
But even at the most liberal of estimates, that isn’t the case. The club has appreciated in value, according to most analyses, but not quite at that rate.
| Rank | Club | Value | 1-yr change | Owners |
| 17 | Manchester United | $6.2B | +4% | Glazer family |
| 18 | Real Madrid | $6.06B | +16% | Club members |
| 35 | FC Barcelona | $5.28B | +7% | Club members |
| 40 | Liverpool | $5.11B | +8% | Fenway Sports Group |
| 46 | Bayern Munich | $4.8B | +8% | Club members |
| 51 | Manchester City | $4.75B | +7% | Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan |
| 61 | Paris Saint-Germain | $4.05B | +19% | Qatar Sports Investment |
| 65 | Arsenal | $3.91B | +9% | Stan Kroenke |
| 74 | Tottenham Hotspur | $3.49B | +9% | Joe Lewis family trust, Daniel Levy |
| 75 | Chelsea | $3.47B | ±0% | Todd Boehley, Clearlake Capital |
Even though the Hammers have been one of the most profitable teams in the Premier League in recent years, they aren’t close justifying that sort of price tag.
Kretinsky is said to be disillusioned at the London Stadium, where David Sullivan and Karen Brady are the chief decision makers and have overseen a poor season on the pitch in 2024-25.
| Position | Team | Played MP |
Won W |
Drawn D |
Lost L |
For GF |
Against GA |
Diff GD |
Points Pts |
| 13 |  Man UtdManchester United |
30 | 10 | 7 | 13 | 37 | 41 | -4 | 37 |
| 14 |  TottenhamTottenham |
29 | 10 | 4 | 15 | 55 | 43 | 12 | 34 |
| 15 |  EvertonEverton |
30 | 7 | 13 | 10 | 32 | 37 | -5 | 34 |
| 16 |  West HamWest Ham |
30 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 33 | 50 | -17 | 34 |
| 17 |  WolvesWolves |
30 | 8 | 5 | 17 | 41 | 58 | -17 | 29 |
| 18 |  IpswichIpswich |
30 | 4 | 8 | 18 | 30 | 63 | -33 | 20 |
But it’s a saturated market in the Premier League at present, where Tottenham, Wolves, Bournemouth, Brentford and Crystal Palace are all seeking minority investment at different price points.
And with dwindling interest in football from the private equity sector, the pool of potential buyers for a stake in West Ham is relatively limited.
That said, the Irons have a lot going for them. Their business fundamentals are strong, they are in a desirable location, and their debt is virtually non-existent.
Credit: Adam Williams/TBR Football/GRV Media
On the flipside, given that the current business model sees nearly all cash earned is reinvested in the business, there remains a question about how viable an investment the club is.
However, as University of Liverpool football finance lecturer and well-connected industry insider Kieran Maguire has explained in exclusive conversation with TBR Football, there should still be a market.
Daniel Kretinsky could ‘flip West Ham and come out with a profit’, says football finance expert
While Kretinsky was a reputable business figure before his part-takeover of West Ham, there is no doubt that owning a Premier League club has had a validating effect on his standing in the UK.
Indeed, that is the reason that many investors feel that this kind of investment is worthwhile despite the relative lack of control in the boardroom that minority equity yields. It’s a beachhead for other business.
As case in point, after co-owning West Ham for three-and-half-years, Kretinsky is about to buy out another British institution in the Royal Mail.
His involvement at the London Stadium, which is just a few miles from Royal Mail HQ, has greased the wheels politically in those negotiations.
“Being a significant minority investor in a Premier League football club opens a lot of doors one of those being the boardroom door on a matchday,” explains Maguire.
“If you’re looking to sign contracts polish off deals and so on, having the space that a Premier League investment yields is very beneficial.
“The track record has been mixed when it comes the minority investment. Sir Jim Ratcliffe got a control document alongside his 27 per cent, so he is an outlier as far as this kind of investment and control behind the scenes is concerned.
“If you take a look at John Textor at Palace, his biggest regrets is not getting over the 50 per cent line and he has been moaning about that ever since.
“Was Kretinsky hoping to use his 27 per cent as a stalking horse to take ultimate control? That’s not really been his M.O in terms of his investment portfolio to date, but there were so many positives with this deal.
“It’s got the London location, is one of the most profitable Premier League clubs, so you can see the significant pluses.
“From his point of view, there is still the potential to flip West Ham and come out with a profit. But I suspect his initial motive was the soft power benefits that came along with this.”
How much West Ham will earn from Premier League Summer Series pre-season tournament
Invariably, when a new investor enters the Premier League market, the international appeal of its brand as a whole and its individual clubs is cited as a value driver.
The so-called ‘Big Six’ command the biggest global fanbases, but West Ham and a handful of others also have significant followings overseas.
Pre-season tours are one way that the Hammers have looked to exploit this. In the last two seasons, they have visited Australia and the United States, two key commercial markets.
Sport in the United States generate more revenue than the GDPs of all but the 70 richest countries on the planet, and the Premier League is one of its fastest growing TV properties.
This coming summer, West Ham will partake in the second edition of the Premier League Summer Series, an officially-sanctioned mini-tournament, alongside Man United, Everton and Bournemouth.
Prize money statistics haven’t yet been released, but those canvassed by TBR suggested that West Ham can probably expect to earn around £4m after costs from the exhibition series.
This has caused some controversy among rival clubs given that the Premier League is, they argue, funding some clubs but not others at a time when Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) are a millstone for many.
One suggested solution was to give clubs not competing in the tournament a PSR credit – basically, a token that is not real cash but, for the purposes of PSR, behaves as such on the balance sheet.
In any case, these pre-season tours in far-flung, lucrative markets are often less about the cold, hard cash they generate and more about brand building.
For West Ham, it’s about cultivating their following in the US and either monetising or getting potential customers into the monetisation funnel.
