Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group complete partial sale despite 'tremendous reputation'

Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) have completed their latest transaction as a busy period for the company continues.

FSG helped spearhead the Strategic Sports Group to invest up to $3 billion in the PGA Tour earlier this year. It wasn't their first venture in golf, having purchased a franchise in the new TGL League led by Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods that will now start in 2025.

What's more, FSG have prised former Liverpool sporting director Micahel Edwards back to the company. He's now the Boston-based group's CEO of football and overseeing the appointment for Jurgen Klopp’s successor as Reds manager. Richard Hughes has taken up Edwards’ former Anfield role after being prised from Bournemouth.

And Theo Epstein, the Boston Red Sox's former general manager, is also back working alongside John Henry and Co.

However, FSG - who also own NHL team the Pittsburgh Penguins and NASCAR team RFK Racing - have opted to complete a minority sale of one arm of their business. Fenway Sports Management has been acquired by Elevate Brand. The purchase means that Elevate takes control of brand partnerships such as Moderna, Santander Bank, and the Red Sox Foundation.

Cameron Wagner, chief client officer for Elevate, told Sportcal: “The acquisition of a Fenway Sports Management brand consulting group absolutely bolsters what we were already doing and amplifies it. They give us the opportunity to scale our business with the things we're already doing very quickly. And so that was one of the great appeals of working with them and addition to their client roster, and their experience bringing brands to live at properties and the live activation space which is an area which we're growing as well.”

Elevate chief executive Al Guido said: “This business is all about people and Fenway has a tremendous reputation in the space. I have a ton of respect for [Fenway Sport Group chief executive] Sam Kennedy and all the folks that were there and then BriAnne [Newman] and her team that had been running the Fenway Sports Management Group for a while now.

“This is just another evolution in the work that we've already been doing under Cameron's team. And you know, with this acquisition, we pick up a number of employees, but the best part of it is we pick up a number of clients as well.”