Dragan Solak is the billionaire who likes to operate outside of the limelight. He’s spent more than two decades building a media empire but it was the acquisition of an English Premier League football club that changed everything.
Through London-based investment vehicle Sport Republic, Solak bought an
80 per cent stake in Southampton
in a bet that demand for football rights will continue to rise, as online
streaming platforms compete against traditional broadcasters to screen sports
around the world.
“If you look at the inflation of the prices of elite sports
rights,” he told the Financial Times, “I thought if it goes crazy like this I’d
rather be in the sports business than in the broadcasting business.”
The Serbian-born media tycoon says he’s been fielding
calls from compilers of rich lists to ascertain his net worth ever since
confirmation of the acquisition, which valued the club at around £250m
including debt.
This is far from Solak’s first encounter with the Premier
League, the world’s richest domestic football division. As founder of United Group, in which he retains a
minority stake, he still owns the rights to screen top-flight English football
matches across much of the Balkans.
Beneath the surface, the acquisition also signals Solak’s
swing from buyer of media rights to the indirect recipient of TV money paid by
broadcasters.
What’s gone under the radar is that United’s grip on Premier
League broadcast rights ends at the end of this season, pointing to a clash
between the businessman and the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, who
Solak accuses of cracking down on independent media outlets.
That’s because Serbian state broadcaster Telekom Srbija last
year splashed out an estimated €600m for the next six years, roughly ten times
the annual price paid by United.
Solak’s theory is that TS is buying up sports screening
rights in a political manoeuvre designed to lure subscribers from his
independent news channels to state channels that are uncritical of the
government.
TS said it did not overpay and denied it had a political
motivation, adding that it “finances its deals solely from its own financial
resources and capacity.”
This dispute raises uncomfortable questions for the Premier
League, which was forced to part ways with former chair Gary Hoffman over its decision to
approve last year’s Saudi Arabia-led takeover of Newcastle United for £305m, amid scrutiny of its dealings
with state-backed entities.
A person close to the Premier League says it is not uncommon
to see leaps in the value of broadcast deals.
For his part, Solak insists the Southampton takeover has
nothing to do with his media interests, and pledged: “I don’t want to abuse my
position now in the Premier League.”
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