Rio Ferdinand on Football's Business Potential Beyond TV

Bloomberg

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00:00Now you are in, I guess, the second phase of your career, which is with the launch of Ferdinand Group,

00:05and that is a sports and entertainment company.

00:09Talk to us about the types of investments that you're looking for for the group.

00:13Yeah, I've got that, but I think that's just my media company, Rio Presents,

00:18which hosts Rio Meats and different podcasts.

00:22My football agency and commercial agency, New Era as well, which are really thriving.

00:26And again, it's just, I'm from a football background, and that obviously encapsulates sport as well,

00:34and we want to speak to that, and new media is exactly the way to do that,

00:38and talking to people directly, seeing it from the horse's mouth,

00:44and being a part of that culture, and the ever-evolving culture as well,

00:47and that landscape's moving quickly, and just being a part of that,

00:50and being at the curve of it, because I've been used to doing linear TV, which is great,

00:55and I just wanted to step out and have that freedom and that capability to kind of move and expand

00:59and talk in a new way that I think is being consumed very differently

01:03to the way when I first started 10 years ago.

01:05And that's why, again, I invested in a company in Saudi called Kura Breaks.

01:09Yeah, I was going to ask you about that.

01:10So we reported on that last year, a multi-million dollar investment.

01:14Yeah, and everyone was saying, well, what are you doing?

01:17It's just a fast-growing place.

01:20It's a fast-growing place.

01:21We've seen with all of the investment that's going in there now,

01:23but in terms of media, football, sport in general,

01:28it's crazy, the growth there, and the ability to kind of go there

01:32and really get into that market.

01:33And actually, because I'm coming from where I'm coming from and my background,

01:37there's a lot of value I can add in that.

01:39Yeah.

01:39So, you know, that deal got a lot of attention,

01:42because it was, I believe, one of the first times that you had a foreign investor

01:48invest into local Saudi fintech startup, right, or fintech platform.

01:54And typically, what we've seen in the region is money going outwards

01:57as opposed to investment locally.

01:59Do you think there is enough investment taking place at a local level

02:03to promote, you know, grassroots sports endeavors?

02:07Yeah, I think that's something that is coming.

02:09I think the first, obviously, tranche of kind of interest, money, investment, etc.,

02:13was going to be to kind of definitely cultivate eyeballs coming to the region

02:19and to say, look at what we're doing.

02:22And I think then after that is an underbelly of hard work

02:24and the real work that starts happening in terms of making sure

02:27that it becomes a sustainable economy in that sense through sport.

02:31And I think what we see is a glitz and glamour, yes,

02:33but listen, I'm having a lot of conversations.

02:35I've been traveling to Saudi for the last two and a half, three years

02:39and understanding the culture, the differences,

02:43but also the real intent to really create that underbelly

02:46of young, aspiring people from the kingdom

02:50who they want to really push and make people that everyone can be proud of.

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