Daniel Levy’s Bold £228m Plan to Transform Spurs

Financially, Tottenham is often seen as the best-run club in the Premier League. While there’s debate about when this success will lead to trophies, their business skills are undeniable.

Spurs have long-term partnerships with AIA and Nike, worth £70m per season. This financial security is crucial as chairman Daniel Levy looks for investors, a search revealed in the club’s accounts earlier this year.

Talk of a full or partial takeover has sparked speculation about the club’s future. To understand Levy’s master plan, TBR spoke with Kieran Maguire, a football finance lecturer at Liverpool University and author of “Price of Football.”

Tottenham Expanding Overseas

Thanks to Son Heung-Min, Spurs have a huge following in South Korea and East Asia. They will tour Japan this pre-season. Their popularity in the US is also growing, and they’re considering a pre-season tour there for the first time since 2017. However, their brand is the least recognizable of the Big Six clubs outside the UK.

Experts like the CLV Group suggest that Web3 and crypto could drive commercial growth and brand awareness in foreign markets. Spurs are late to this trend, with other Premier League clubs signing commercial deals in this space years ago. They argue this is because they’ve been cautious about aligning with the right brands. Now, they’ve taken their first step with a shirt sleeve sponsorship deal with Kraken.

Maguire is skeptical about this new deal’s potential. He explains, “Football clubs have been trying to convert interest into money for the last 15-20 years. Using blockchain or Web3 is appealing because these companies have a lot of start-up capital. However, past deals like WhaleFin at Chelsea and DigitalBits at Inter Milan have been problematic. These organizations don’t always pay.

“The benefits of being promoted by a crypto company seem good, but they often use vague language about ‘integration with the fanbase’ and ‘bringing parties together.’ The real benefits are usually minimal. When fans realize they aren’t getting much, the relationship can sour.

“Blockchain is great, a digital receipt book is useful for anyone in the arts, but converting interest into paying customers, like Spurs fans willing to pay monthly for a digital relationship, is still hard.”

Avoiding Commercial Problems

Another recent sponsorship deal Spurs signed was with online bookmaker BetMGM, replacing Getir as their training kit partner. Getir had to end their deal early after their UK business collapsed, reportedly still owing Spurs several million pounds. Similar issues have been seen with crypto deals in football over the last three years.

Maguire believes Spurs will have learned their lesson from the Getir situation. “It will be interesting to see if Daniel Levy has been blinded by the cheque. Spurs are notoriously tough negotiators. You’d think they’ve done proper due diligence.

“They likely secured a substantial down payment after their issues with Getir and what we’ve seen with other digital companies. At least this way, they have a cash inflow, unlike with WhaleFin and others.”