August 13 – The Lewis family, owners of Tottenham Hotspur via their ENIC Group investment company, are exploring a bid for the NBA Europe team in London and could face competition from the club’s former chairman Daniel Levy in the process.
The Lewis family owns a 70.12% stake in ENIC Group, Spurs parent company, which in turn owns 87.62% of the English Premier League entity.
ENIC bought a controlling stake in Spurs in 2001 from Sir Alan Sugar, appointing Levy as chairman in the process. At the time, the group bought shares in numerous football clubs across Europe, including Rangers, Slavia Prague, AEK Athens, Vicenza and FC Basel.
Now the family itself is primarily represented by Vivienne Lewis, Joe’s daughter, and Nick Beucher, her son-in-law and co-chief executive of Tavistock Group.
Looking to expand its sporting empire, the Lewis family have come together with the Checketts family, former owners of Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake and the National Hockey League’s St. Louis Blue, and the Eccles family, investors in English Football League side Burney and LaLiga outfit Espanyol, to form a consortium eyeing an NBA Europe franchise acquisition.
Sky News reports that the consortium have already tabled a bid to own the London entity. A source close to the London basketball consortium said it combined “some of the most experienced basketball and sports investors and operators globally”.
The source added that the group was supported by “substantial institutional and private capital”.
The consortium does have some expertise in the sector. David Checketts has held various senior roles across the NBA,
However, the group could face opposition from a familiar for in Daniel Levy, who recently left Tottenham Hotspur after a long association with the club.
Levy is involved in a separate bid featuring Liberty Global and MSP Sports Capital – a former backer of McLaren Racing.
NBA Europe, a joint venture between the NBA and FIBA, is slated to begin in 2027 with 12 permanent teams plus four annual qualifiers. London is one of the 12 target cities to host a franchise.
Franchises across the continents are receiving interest from some of the biggest private equity and investment fund in the world including RedBird Capital Partners, Qatar Sports Investments and various others.