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Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro are set to join the NFL ownership club, acquiring individual minority stakes in the Las Vegas Raiders.
The positions, confirmed to Deadline by a spokesperson for the duo, follow a steady building of their profiles in the sports business via the UFC and other assets. The investments are personal and not connected with their ongoing ventures TKO, WME Holdings or investment firm MARI. After the deals close, as soon as the end of this month, Emanuel and Shapiro will each have stakes of less than 10% in the NFL club.
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Las Vegas majority owner Mark Davis inherited the franchise after his father, Al Davis, died in 2011. Davis Sr. was an iconoclastic figure who helped shape the modern NFL but also clashed repeatedly with fellow owners and created a larger-than-life persona suited to the Raiders’ pirate image.
The buy-in by Emanuel and Shapiro comes as Davis has been selling off chunks of the team. Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady, now a broadcaster on Fox, became a 5% stakeholder in 2024. League owners will soon vote on other ownership stakes, with SportsIllustrated‘s Albert Breer reporting Tuesday that Egon Durban, head of private equity firm Silver Lake, and Michael Meldman are aiming to double their holdings to 22% and 12.9%, respectively. (Silver Lake controls both TKO and WME Group.)
Dell founder Michael Dell and Blackstone founder Joseph Baratta are also acquiring small stakes, Breer added.
A report last week by CNBC pegged the valuation of the Raiders in the new round of investments at $9.9 billion. Sports teams in general have appreciated markedly in recent years amid surging TV and streaming rights deals and ever-expanding revenue from merchandise and other business lines.
While they haven’t been to a Super Bowl since 2004, when they were based in Oakland, the Raiders remain valuable and have a winning heritage. After drafting Fernando Mendoza, the quarterback who led Indiana to the national college championship last January, the team is expected to improve next season. Even so, it is among a handful of teams without any prime-time games on the 2026-27 schedule released last week by the NFL.
The move would be a first for Emanuel and Shapiro in terms of a direct investment in an NFL team, but Shapiro has had extensive dealings with the league over the course of his career. When he was overseeing programming and production at ESPN, Shapiro acquired Monday Night Football rights in 2005 and also created the NFL Honors, a Super Bowl-adjacent ceremony that will stream next year on Netflix.
When Shapiro was running Endeavor Group Holdings along with Emanuel, he also led the acquisition of hospitality provider On Location, which has exclusive NFL packages. Shapiro also is a minority owner of the Los Angeles Football Club.
TKO, which owns the UFC and the WWE, was taken private last year. Emanuel is its CEO, and Shapiro is president and COO. At the WME Group, Emanuel is executive chairman and Shapiro is president and managing partner. MARI, which launched last year, has a portfolio of sports and cultural events including pro tennis tournaments in Miami and Madrid as well as the Frieze art fair.
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The positions, confirmed to Deadline by a spokesperson for the duo, follow a steady building of their profiles in the sports business via the UFC and other assets. The investments are personal and not connected with their ongoing ventures TKO, WME Holdings or investment firm MARI. After the deals close, as soon as the end of this month, Emanuel and Shapiro will each have stakes of less than 10% in the NFL club.
More from Deadline
- Ari Emanuel's TKO Group Holdings Matches Q1 Expectations As Paramount Rights Deal Boosts UFC
- TKO CEO Ari Emanuel Sees 2025 Pay Package Jump To $67 Million; COO Mark Shapiro At $43 Million
- Blake Lively Gets Strong Support From WME After Baldoni Suit Carved Up By Judge Ahead Of Trial
Las Vegas majority owner Mark Davis inherited the franchise after his father, Al Davis, died in 2011. Davis Sr. was an iconoclastic figure who helped shape the modern NFL but also clashed repeatedly with fellow owners and created a larger-than-life persona suited to the Raiders’ pirate image.
The buy-in by Emanuel and Shapiro comes as Davis has been selling off chunks of the team. Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady, now a broadcaster on Fox, became a 5% stakeholder in 2024. League owners will soon vote on other ownership stakes, with SportsIllustrated‘s Albert Breer reporting Tuesday that Egon Durban, head of private equity firm Silver Lake, and Michael Meldman are aiming to double their holdings to 22% and 12.9%, respectively. (Silver Lake controls both TKO and WME Group.)
Dell founder Michael Dell and Blackstone founder Joseph Baratta are also acquiring small stakes, Breer added.
A report last week by CNBC pegged the valuation of the Raiders in the new round of investments at $9.9 billion. Sports teams in general have appreciated markedly in recent years amid surging TV and streaming rights deals and ever-expanding revenue from merchandise and other business lines.
While they haven’t been to a Super Bowl since 2004, when they were based in Oakland, the Raiders remain valuable and have a winning heritage. After drafting Fernando Mendoza, the quarterback who led Indiana to the national college championship last January, the team is expected to improve next season. Even so, it is among a handful of teams without any prime-time games on the 2026-27 schedule released last week by the NFL.
The move would be a first for Emanuel and Shapiro in terms of a direct investment in an NFL team, but Shapiro has had extensive dealings with the league over the course of his career. When he was overseeing programming and production at ESPN, Shapiro acquired Monday Night Football rights in 2005 and also created the NFL Honors, a Super Bowl-adjacent ceremony that will stream next year on Netflix.
When Shapiro was running Endeavor Group Holdings along with Emanuel, he also led the acquisition of hospitality provider On Location, which has exclusive NFL packages. Shapiro also is a minority owner of the Los Angeles Football Club.
TKO, which owns the UFC and the WWE, was taken private last year. Emanuel is its CEO, and Shapiro is president and COO. At the WME Group, Emanuel is executive chairman and Shapiro is president and managing partner. MARI, which launched last year, has a portfolio of sports and cultural events including pro tennis tournaments in Miami and Madrid as well as the Frieze art fair.
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Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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