Jay-Z
Net worth: $930 million
Owns: Brooklyn Nets
Influential modern hip-hop recording artist Jay-Z started his career rapping at a young age, making mixtapes that soon evolved into albums, which eventually caught the attention of the general public. Born in New York City with the name Shawn Carter, he is the husband of Beyonce and is the father of their three children.
Throughout his career, he earned 22 Grammy awards amongst other awards. He also shares ownership of the new NBA team Brooklyn Nets and owns the companies Roc Nation, Tidal, and Aspiro.
Robert McNair
Net worth: $4 billion
Owns: Houston Texans (NFL)
Sports entrepreneur and philanthropist Robert “Bob” McNair owns the NFL team Houston Texas. Once a student at the University of South Carolina, he began his business ventures in his twenties but wasn’t successful until he started a cogeneration company called Cogen Tech.
He later traded Cogen over to Enron in 1999 and became the owner of several power plants throughout the country. A real estate and financial tycoon, he served as the CEO of The McNair Group and as the owner of the private investment firm Palmetto Partners, Ltd.
Gayle Benson
Net worth: $2.8 billion
Owns: New Orleans Saints (NFL)
Franchise owner and heiress Gayle Benson acquired control of some sports teams after the death of her husband Tom Benson. The New Orleans native first began her business career in interior decorating.
Gayle’s late husband, Tom, wrote Gayle out to inherit his wealth instead of his children. Even though the issue made its way to court, Gayle won and obtained all of Tom’s assets, including the NFL team New Orleans Saints.
Henry Samueli
Net worth: $4.1 billion
Owns: Anaheim Ducks (NHL)
The Buffalo, New York native Henry Samueli is the owner of the NHL team Anaheim Ducks. Currently, he is a resident of Newport Beach in California, the Broadcom CEO and chairman, and a recognized philanthropist in Orange County.
He works at UCLA as an engineering professor, though he had to file a leave of absence to lead the Ducks. He is an IEEE member, an AAAS member, an NAE member, and a distinguished inventor with over 70 US patents under his name. He is even a Marconi Prize award recipient for his communication inventions.
Joshua Harris
Net worth: $3.6 billion
Owns: Philadelphia 76ers (NBA)
Private equity investor Joshua Harris owns both the NBA team the Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL team the New Jersey Devils. He serves as a shareholder of the Crystal Palace and is the man behind the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, which is one of the biggest alt-investment companies around the globe.
His group Apollo Global bought the 76ers from Comcast in 2011, with the deal confirmed in October of that year as well. His firm would also handle the likes of Will and Jada Smith, Marc Leder, Michael Rubin, James Lassiter, and several others.
Ted Lerner
Net worth: $4.8 billion
Owns: Washington Nationals
Real estate tycoon Ted Lerner is the owner of the MLB team the Washington Nationals. The Washington, D.C. native started the real estate group Lerner Enterprises which is the biggest private landowner in the D.C. Metro area and manages many residential, retail, commercial, and civil properties, as well as Chelsea Piers, which is found in New York City.
The wealthiest person in Maryland, he and his wife Annette have been wed to each other since 1951 and have had three children together. Ted took out a loan worth only $250 from his wife to start his firm, and he created a billion-dollar empire out of it.
Charles Johnson
Net worth: $5.1 billion
Owns: San Francisco Giants
Successful New Jersey-born entrepreneur Charles Bartlett Johnson was once a student at Yale University. He also served as a lieutenant based in Germany when he enrolled in college ROTC. He is the owner of the sports team the San Francisco Giants, but since he lives in Palm Beach in Florida, he passes the decisions for the team’s management to his employees.
He prides himself for his philanthropical works, putting himself forth as one of Yale’s primary donors as well as the main renovation donor for the Yale Bowl. He established the Johnson Center which focuses on American diplomacy. He had even donated around $250 million to his alma mater for the construction of two new Yale colleges.
Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha
Net worth: $5.9 billion
Owns: Leicester City F.C.
Bangkok-born business mogul Khun Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha was once a student of Bangkok University whose net worth now amounts to nearly $6 billion. He serves as the major Thai retail group King Power which had been first established by his father. He shares ownership of the Leicester City F.C. and OH Leuven.
He acquired control over King Power and OH Leuven as well as the shared ownership of the football club after his father suddenly passed away in a helicopter accident. Aside from these, Srivaddhanaprabha is a Buddhist monk who has been ordained at a temple back in his home country.
Robert Pera
Net worth: $7.2 billion
Owns: Memphis Grizzlies
Robert Pera gained his billionaire status at the age of 36, making him one of the world’s top ten youngest billionaires. He bought the sports team the Memphis Grizzlies from Michael Heisley in 2012.
He started the worldwide tech firm Ubiquiti Networks which has gone public since 2011 after Pera put it up to the public for an IPO. A former Apple employee, he left his previous company to start his own firm.
Robert Kraft
Net worth: $6.6 billion
Owns: New England Patriots (NFL)
Robert Kraft began his connection with the NFL team the New England Patriots as a season ticket holder in 1971. He helped keep the team in New England by buying them for $172 million in 1994, the highest price ever put made for an NFL team at its time.
After showing up in 9 of the last 18 Super Bowls and claiming 6 victories from there, the Patriots are now worth $3.7 billion. The Kraft family has given away $100 million of their personal wealth to several charitable works like education, child-related and women-related problems, healthcare, and youth sports.