“From rags to riches” Matthew Benham has turned his and Brentford FC life around after the owner secured promotion to the Premier League via the playoffs in the Championship
Brentford FC’s owner rescued the club from financial ruin and has turned them into fierce competitors. He has established a club that will not back down at any moment and has a huge fanbase in West London.
Matthew Benham, Brentford FC Owner Net Worth
52-year-old sports analyst Matthew Benham has a net worth of € 3 Million which he has earned from gambling and investing in different aspects of the game. He is known in the football world as a smart and capable man.
He turned his and his club’s life around after a successful campaign that saw his club qualify for the Premier League that is the highest level of English Football. He and Brentford FC will be in the Premier League next season competing with the elites.
Brentford FC Owner Gambler: English Football’s Moneyball
He graduated in Physics from the University of Oxford and made his way into finance. After making his way up the stairs for 12 years he became the vice president at Bank of America. In 2001, he made a drastic shift from finance to sports betting.
After leaving Bank of America, he joined a sports gambling company where he used to create predictive analytics models for gambling purposes. He worked in Premier Bet for two years before deciding to quit in 2003 after a fallout with Tony Bloom.
However, working as a sports analyst, he used his experience and started his own betting syndicate Smartodds. He became a professional sports gambler using all his expertise from his previous ventures where he gained so much experience.
After the massive success of Smartodds and the extensive knowledge of algorithms and data analysis helped him to set up another betting exchange Matchbook. He advised his clients into making big investments and provided them with proper insights into the market.
Brentford Football Owner Story: Turning his lifelong dream into reality
He was a childhood fan of his hometown club Brentford and decided to help the club in 2007 when they were facing financial issues. He provided them with a loan of $700K with an obligation that if they fail to pay him back he will become the owner of the club.
He eventually became the owner of the club as the fans were not able to repay the initial loan amount of $700K. To improve the condition at Brentford FC, the now 52-year-old decided to use his years of analytics knowledge on FC Midtjylland and put it into use at Brentford.
He decided to take the club in a new direction as they started scouting under-valued players and selling them as bright prospects earning a decent amount of profit. With the help of statistical data and analysis, he identified the correct players for the team.
After achieving success in the Championship, his main motive was to get the club into the Premier League to compete at the highest level. His strong willpower and determination have earned his boyhood club promotion to the Premier League and have increased the value of the club to $300 million.
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