The Lakers just sold for a record $12.5 billion. The new owners are pitching investors on a number five times higher, and the fight over whether that's genius or delusion tells you where basketball's money is heading. For 46 years the Los Angeles Lakers were a family business. Now they are the most expensive test case in sports of a simple question: how high can a franchise valuation go before the math stops working?
The chain of numbers
The Buss family sold majority control to Guggenheim's Mark Walter at a $10 billion valuation, announced in June 2025 and closed that October. Fourteen months later, in August 2026, Walter agreed to sell his majority stake to a group led by Thrive Capital's Joshua Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger at a $12.5 billion valuation, a record for any pro sports team. Walter cleared roughly $2.5 billion in barely over a year. Iger said the deal came together in three days.
The pitch that raised eyebrows
Then came the part that made even seasoned sports financiers blink. Per Wall Street Journal reporting, a Thrive investor presentation projects the Lakers could be worth at least $30 billion within a decade, and as much as $62 billion under favorable conditions, as Yahoo Sports relayed. The model has revenue climbing from about $681 million today to roughly $1.6 billion by 2037, and it leans on one big bet: that the NBA's national media rights, already worth $76 billion over 11 years, roughly double at the next renewal. The nearer-term levers are less glamorous and less fan-friendly: reclaiming around 6,000 broker-held season tickets to resell as pricier single-game seats, tens of millions in new sponsorship, and squeezing out operating costs.
The overhang
None of this is clean yet. Kushner must sell his minority stake in the Miami Heat to satisfy the NBA's cross-ownership rules. And Jeanie Buss is contesting her siblings' sale of the family's remaining 17.8%, citing a 2017 court order meant to keep her as controlling owner with at least a 15% stake. A hearing is set for early November. If that block sells, she could lose her governorship.
Genius or bubble?
The bulls are unbothered. Fellow owner Josh Harris told CNBC the Lakers are "worth every bit of $12 billion," pointing to insatiable demand for live content and private-equity liquidity. The bears note that the $12.5 billion price is about 20 times revenue, against a league-average multiple closer to 13. Sports economist Victor Matheson calls the run-up a "rational bubble," rational only because there is usually a greater fool willing to pay more. RedBird's Gerry Cardinale, sitting on a fresh fund, has said he would not put it into sports because you are "guaranteed" to overpay. The Lakers are now the clearest bet that he is wrong.
The Digest
The EuroLeague says the NBA hasn't actually made an offer. Ahead of a defining October 5 shareholder vote at Lake Como, EuroLeague CEO Chus Bueno told The Athletic the league has received nothing concrete from the NBA about a partnership, as RealGM reported. Owners must choose between joining the NBA and FIBA's planned 2027 NBA Europe league or pressing ahead with independent expansion to 24 teams, backed by binding franchise bids of almost €700 million, per ESPN. Bueno's line to the NBA: if there's no deal in Europe, the EuroLeague will compete in Europe. This is the single biggest structural question in world basketball right now.
The EuroLeague stacks media and betting deals in the same week. The league added six domestic competitions, including Australia's NBL and China's CBA, to EuroLeague TV in partnership with Sportradar, it announced, a step toward a broader "Euroleague Basketball+" platform. It also struck a free-to-air Switzerland deal with blue Zoom and pay-TV blue Sport, per Eurohoops, and named LetsBet its local betting partner in Germany through 2028-29, also via Eurohoops. Distribution and gaming money, locked in on the eve of the season.
Abu Dhabi hosts the EuroLeague's new season opener. The inaugural EuroLeague SuperCup ran September 18 to 19 at Etihad Arena, with Olympiacos, Fenerbahce, Real Madrid and Dubai Basketball, brokered by IMG and built on Abu Dhabi's tourism partnership. Real Madrid took the first title. The Gulf is no longer just buying teams, it is buying the calendar's marquee dates.
Korea's KBL names KCC its title sponsor. The league confirmed KCC to brand the 2026-27 campaign, the company's seventh stint as title sponsor, with rights across naming, in-venue advertising and promotions for all 10 teams, per Star News Korea. The season tips off October 3 in Busan. A steady reminder that Asia's established leagues run on the same sponsorship engine as Europe's.
Australia's NBL adds Spotlight for NBL27. The retailer became the league's Official Celebration Partner as the Hungry Jack's NBL27 season launched September 19, the NBL announced, joining Kraft Heinz, Sharpie, Sprite and major partner Optus. The NBL's commercial book keeps thickening as its club valuations climb.
DAZN keeps Britain's Super League Basketball free to watch. The streamer extended with SLB for 2026-27, carrying every league, cup and playoff game free in the UK and worldwide via Courtside 1891, per Sports Video Group. DAZN framed it as building a basketball home on the road to the 2027 World Cup. Reach over rights fees, a familiar bet in a growth market.
College basketball keeps selling its jerseys. Providence named Santander its first-ever jersey patch partner across men's and women's basketball, via SBJ (terms undisclosed, as Learfield-brokered deals sit outside open-records law). It follows the NCAA's January rule change and the market it opened, headlined by Ohio State's JPMorganChase patch at nearly $17 million a year. The amateurism-era jersey is now inventory.
Brazil sells its data future. The country's LNB signed a multi-year deal handing Sportradar worldwide betting-data and audiovisual rights across all its competitions, plus AI scouting and fraud-detection tools across 620-plus matches a season, Sportradar announced. The data-and-integrity land grab is how emerging basketball markets get monetized before the bigger money arrives.