Who Is Mark Walter? Billionaire changing sports by owning teams from NBA to Formula 1

Mark Walter, who is a billionaire investor and the CEO of Guggenheim Partners, is no stranger to headlines, especially not for buying major sports ownership. He has teams in several leagues and different countries, and every year he has quietly built a sports empire that includes teams in baseball, women's hockey, European football, and motorsports.

Now, he is (somewhat inappropriately) making headlines again. A new deal with the Los Angeles Lakers has valued the team at an unprecedented $10 billion. Which is extremely shocking for fans and insiders, but just reaffirming that Mark Walter is changing the entire landscape of sports globally again.

Mark Walter now owns part of the Los Angeles Lakers After $10 billion deal

On Monday, June 17, 2025, Mark Walter and his firm, Guggenheim Partners, agreed to acquire a major stake in the Los Angeles Lakers at a record $10 billion valuation, according to Front Office Sports. This deal is now the highest team valuation ever recorded in the NBA.

Mark Walter is already the primary owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, which he and Guggenheim Baseball Management bought in 2012 for $2.15 billion.

Mark Walter is also part-owner of the Los Angeles Sparks, the WNBA team, continuing his strong focus on top LA franchises. With this new Los Angeles Lakers deal, Mark Walter now holds a major share across basketball, baseball, and women’s sports — all within the city of Los Angeles.

Mark Walter’s sports holdings include Chelsea FC and a 2026 F1 team

Mark Walter’s investments go beyond the U.S. In 2022, he co-led the group BlueCo along with Todd Boehly to buy Chelsea FC, a top soccer club in London. They also own RC Strasbourg, a football club in France. In 2023, Mark Walter expanded into women’s hockey by purchasing the Premier Hockey Federation and merging it with other leagues, creating the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). The league’s championship trophy is named the Walter Cup in his honor.

In motorsports, Mark Walter’s group TWG Motorsports will launch a Cadillac Formula 1 team in 2026. He’s also involved in IndyCar, Formula E, NASCAR, and other racing series through deals with Andretti Global, Spire Motorsports, and Wayne Taylor Racing.As one sports executive told Front Office Sports, “No one is doing what Mark Walter is doing — he’s building something nobody else even imagined.”

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Who is Mark Walter? The billionaire who acquired Los Angeles Lakers in biggest sports team deal in history