Meet the billionaire booster behind Miami’s NIL-driven Final Four roster, a look at who is John Ruiz and his net worth
One of the many plotlines building up to this year’s Final Four is Miami’s first trip to the national semifinals with a squad that contentiously acquired several of its best players through name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals.
The decisions to retain star player Isaiah Wong and to acquire Nijel Pack from Kansas State and Norvchad Omier from Arkansas State have drawn criticism.
College basketball has been referred to as “a travesty and a disgrace” during the NIL period, and former Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim has claimed that teams in the ACC, including Miami, have bought their teams.
Whether you like it or not, the NCAA’s instant eligibility regulation for transfers has made NIL the primary motivator for a lot of player transfers.
Who is John Ruiz Miami Hurricanes benefactor, net worth in 2023, wife, family, business
John and his wife Mayra Ruiz have always prioritized ingraining the same values into their own 3 children ad his father is a strong-minded, hardworking, and smart individual with a unique and awe-inspiring story.
Miami has quickly risen to the top of the NIL landscape thanks to financing provided by billionaire John Ruiz. Who is the UM fan who funded NIL deals to help the Hurricanes achieve their first Final Four?
What you should know about Ruiz and his involvement with the NIL deal in Miami is as follows:
Who is John Ruiz?
John Ruiz is a Miami native first and foremost, which explains why he enjoys Hurricanes athletics.
After finishing from college, he continued his education at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida, where he eventually earned his juris doctor.
He has worked as a lawyer for thirty years, according to his website, “class action, mass tort litigation, MDL consolidated cases, medical malpractice, products liability, personal injury, real estate, and aviation disaster cases.”
He eventually became a billionaire and is now actively involved in several high-profile NIL deals involving the Hurricanes’ athletic department.
He provides the funding for those NIL deals as the company’s founder and CEO. According to Ruiz’s website, the company is the top in healthcare reimbursement recovery in the country, and according to Bloomberg, he owns 65% of it.
He oversees legal recovery strategies in addition to serving as the firm’s founding counsel.
What is the net worth of John Ruiz?
According to a 2021 Forbes article, MSP Recovery was publicly purchased by Special Purpose Acquisition Company Lionheart Acquisition Corp. II for $32.6 billion.
Ruiz controls 65 percent of MSP Recovery, according to Bloomberg, which would have made him the company’s owner for about $19.56 billion at the time the deal was finalised.
It’s essential to remember, though, that the day of the sale, the company’s stock price allegedly dropped by about 70%.
That doesn’t account for the cash Ruiz made from representing clients in court.
John Ruiz NIL deals
LifeWallet is one of the divisions of the MSP Network (of which Ruiz is also the founder and CEO).
Several Hurricanes athletes, including those on this year’s Final Four squad in men’s basketball, were signed to NIL contracts by him using that company.
Participants’ rights and NIL parts are also available on the LifeWallet website. The company will expand to include, per a November 2022 On3.com article, “sports bar/restaurant facilities in Miami.”
The same report states that Ruiz will pay athletes every two weeks via direct wire and that his running budget for the 2022–23 athletic season is zero dollars ($10,000,000).
The next year, Ruiz’s running budget for NIL deals will grow to accommodate LifeWallet’s numerous new divisions, the story claims.
The NIL agreements that Pack, Wong, and Omier have executed are shown here.