Tech consortium agrees £145m stake in London Spirit

A consortium of tech billionaires has agreed a fee of £145m for a stake in London Spirit - and with it the chance to form a partnership with Lord's.

The consortium - led by Nikesh Arora, chief executive of Palo Alto Networks - has agreed the deal for 49% of Spirit, meaning the whole franchise was valued at around £300m.

They are thought to have beaten competition from the Glazer family, co-owners of Manchester United, Todd Boehly, a shareholder in Chelsea, and Indian Premier League side Lucknow Super Giants.

The fee demonstrates the lure of Spirit's base Lord's, the home of cricket.

This was the third in a series of auctions to sell stakes in the eight Hundred teams. Internally, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had valued all eight teams combined at a minimum of £350m.

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), owners of Lord's, opted to keep all of the 51% share it was gifted by the ECB. Both the MCC and ECB declined to comment.

The auction of the Spirit takes the total value of sales to date to about £255m. Welsh Fire were set to be the fourth team auctioned on Friday, but that has been pushed back because the Spirit sale lasted so long. The remaining four auctions will take place from next week onwards.

On Thursday, a 49% share in Oval Invincibles was sold to the owners of Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians for around £60m.

A same-sized stake in Birmingham Phoenix then went to Knighthead Capital, the owners of Birmingham City Football Club, for about £40m.

Like the MCC, both Surrey and Warwickshire, hosts of the Invincibles and Phoenix respectively, opted to retain their 51% shares.

For each of the deals, there will now be an eight-week exclusivity partnership to finalise the details.

The varied backgrounds of the three successful bidders to date fulfils the ECB's stated desire of a blend of investors, rather an IPL takeover of The Hundred.

Internally, the consortium that has agreed the deal for the Spirit has been known as the 'Tech Titans'. India-born Arora has led Palo Alto Networks, a cybersecurity giant, since 2018. He previously spent a decade at Google.

The ECB is retaining control of The Hundred competition, but is selling stakes in the teams to provide a cash injection to the game in this country.

The hosts of the eight teams have been given a 51% stake in their franchise, which they can sell, part-sell or keep, with the ECB then selling the remaining 49%.

Those eight hosts are Lord's (Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)/London Spirit), The Oval (Surrey/Oval Invincibles), Southampton (Hampshire/Southern Brave), Cardiff (Glamorgan/Welsh Fire), Trent Bridge (Nottinghamshire/Trent Rockets), Edgbaston (Warwickshire/Birmingham Phoenix), Old Trafford (Lancashire/Manchester Originals) and Headingley (Yorkshire/Northern Superchargers).

From the total money raised, 10% will go straight to the recreational game. Proceeds from the 49% sales will be divided between the 18 first-class counties and the MCC. If a host decides to sell part or all of its stake, it will hand over 10% of what it receives to be divided between the 18 counties and MCC.

Little change is expected to The Hundred for the upcoming 2025 season, which the ECB sees as "transitional". Some team names, colours or branding could change in 2026.