Revolut chair Gilbert backs R360 rebel rugby league
City grandee and Revolut chairman Martin Gilbert has emerged as an investor in the rebel R360 rugby union league.
Gilbert, formerly of Aberdeen Asset Management, is named on Companies House as a director of AOTG Sport Ltd alongside former Bath Rugby captain Stuart Hooper and former agent Mark Spoors, who are founders of the R360 rebel league with England World Cup winner Mike Tindall.
City PM understands that the league, which would see a player draft tempt athletes from the world’s top leagues into contracts worth as much as £750,000 per season, has raised more than $100m in capital ahead of a proposed launch next October.
Sky News’ Mark Kleinman reported that 885 Capital – investors in Baller League and Professional Fighters League – are also investors in R360, along with Albachiara, an advisory and investment business with close ties to sport.
The involvement of Gilbert will be seen as a coup for the rebel league. R360 declined to comment when approached.
Gilbert backs R360
It comes after the Daily Mail reported that Tindall had assured players mulling a contract with R360 that the rebel league had secured funding for its first three years.
Australian media has reported that London, Miami, Tokyo, Dubai, Boston, Cape Town, Lisbon and Madrid have been lined up as host cities for the inaugural season.
Plans will see players ditch their existing clubs for a global league with fewer fixtures across the calendar, but the league is yet to get World Rugby approval – despite the sport’s governing body having a softer stance on the part of the project involving the women’s game – and some unions have insisted they would ban their players from participating in international rugby if they sign up to the lucrative league.
The project has reportedly targeted the likes of Northampton Saints fly-half Fin Smith and French sensation Antoine Dupont.