Key Takeaways

• The NFL has approved the sale of a 25% stake in the Raiders from minority investor First Football to a group led by Silver Lake co-CEO Egon Durban, valuing the franchise at $9.9 billion.
• Total consideration reaches $11 billion when including the league’s 10% flip tax, which is distributed among the other 31 teams.
• Mark Davis maintains controlling ownership at 36%. Once finalized, Durban’s group will hold approximately 40% of the franchise.
• The valuation has surged 669% since 2015, when Forbes valued the team at $1.43 billion. A 3-14 team now holds a valuation higher than most franchises in the league.
• Durban holds a strategic succession option: The NFL approved a plan in March allowing him to acquire majority control if Davis ever decides to sell.
• Tom Brady is also invested, owning roughly 10% of the team, which he acquired at a $3.5 billion valuation in 2024.

The News

The Las Vegas Raiders are no longer just a professional football team. They have become a high yield asset class.

The NFL’s approval of a 25% stake sale from First Football to a group led by Silver Lake co-CEO Egon Durban reveals the staggering reality of the franchise’s current hierarchy. The underlying equity is valued at $9.9 billion, with total consideration hitting $11 billion after the league’s flip tax.

To put that in perspective: the Raiders are worth $11 billion despite finishing the last season with a dismal 3-14 record.

First Football originally entered the fold in 2007, buying 20% from Al Davis and later adding 5% at a weighted average of roughly $700 million. That same stake is now valued at $2.475 billion. This level of return is not standard for sports ownership. It is the Las Vegas effect.

Mark Davis remains the controlling owner with 36%. Upon closing, Durban’s group will own approximately 40%, positioning him as the largest single stakeholder behind Davis. This transition was signaled in March when the league approved a succession plan giving Durban the option to purchase majority control when Davis exits. This strategy of stacked minority purchases with pre approved options is essentially a corporate takeover in slow motion.

Since 2015, the franchise valuation has climbed from $1.43 billion to $9.9 billion, a massive 669% increase. The Raiders are now the fourth most valuable franchise in the NFL.

Even Tom Brady, who bought a 10% stake at a $3.5 billion valuation in 2024, has seen his investment appreciate significantly in a matter of months. The GOAT timed his entry perfectly.

WALK THE PLANK

The NFL’s approval of the succession plan for Egon Durban is the most telling part of this deal. It indicates that the league views this transition as orderly and inevitable. They are not fearing a chaotic ownership change; they are facilitating a corporate merger.

For a franchise that spent decades as the league’s outcast, moving from Oakland to Las Vegas while cycling through coaching carousels and quarterback busts, the financial trajectory is an anomaly. The Raiders are now valued more than the Patriots and the 49ers, teams that have vastly outperformed them on the field over the same period.

The engine driving this is the Las Vegas market. The combination of tourism, global events, and the brand power of being a first-overall pick town with a state of the art stadium has decoupled the team’s value from its win-loss record.

Durban is not simply buying a football team. He is acquiring a piece of the Las Vegas economic machine and a future option on the entire operation. The $11 billion price tag is massive by traditional standards, but as a private equity thesis on sports ownership in a booming American city, it is a calculated bet.

The ultimate lesson of this deal is brutal: the product on the field is completely irrelevant to the valuation. In the new era of NFL ownership, the brand is everything and the score is secondary.