Baller League Investor Tightens Grip on Leganés With Fresh 15% Stake Purchase
885 Capital has bought out Brookfield's 14.86% share in CD Leganés, deepening its foothold in the Blue Crow Sports multi-club setup. Here's what it all means.
A Dubai-based investment firm with fingers in everything from MMA to the Baller League has quietly become a more significant player at CD Leganés — and the timing, just after relegation from the top flight, makes it a proper story worth unpacking.
Who Are 885 Capital?
Founded by Sudeep Ramnani and Jai Mahtani, 885 Capital is one of those modern sports investment outfits that doesn’t do things by halves. Based in Dubai, they’re already invested in:
- Blue Crow Sports Group — the multi-club holding company that owns Leganés, Cancún FC, and Le Havre
- The Baller League — the five-a-side format trying to muscle in on Kings League territory internationally
- Professional Fighters League (PFL) — the MMA promotion that counts Saudi Arabia’s PIF fund as a minority partner
They’ve also been building out a sports media rights agency, poaching Martijn Bakx and Alex Rotter from Grup Mediapro to lead it. These lot are busy.
So What Actually Happened at Leganés?
Back in October 2024, 885 Capital — through its Spanish subsidiary 885 Football Holdings — bought out Brookfield Capital’s 14.86% direct stake in CD Leganés. Brookfield, which had been backed by Latin American businesspeople, had originally picked up that stake in a corporate restructure just days before Leganés sealed their promotion to LaLiga EA Sports in May 2024.
Once the Pepineros got relegated last season, Brookfield were off. The deal involved the transfer of 358,401 shares, and it means 885 Capital now holds both a direct stake in the club and an indirect one via their shareholding in Blue Crow Sports, which retains 84.21% of Leganés through its vehicle Overton Capital.
Blue Crow itself was set up by Jeff Luhnow in 2021, and the portfolio has already seen some movement — they’ve exited MFK Vyškov in the Czech Republic and Elite Falcons in Dubai, both sold off during 2025.
The Africa Play
One of the more interesting threads here is Blue Crow’s stated ambition to build academies across Africa, aiming to get young talent into European football from age 14 rather than 16. Ramnani has spoken publicly about this being a core part of the group’s long-term strategy.
And there’s already a proof of concept of sorts: Yan Diomandé, the Ivorian midfielder who arrived at Butarque on a free in January 2024, played just ten games, and was sold to RB Leipzig for €20 million — Leganés’ record sale. Not bad, that.
The Finances: Actually Pretty Decent
Here’s the thing — despite the relegation, Leganés’ books are in better nick than you might expect:
- €9 million profit in 2024/25, clawing back some of the €20m lost over the three previous seasons
- Total turnover of €54.7 million — nearly five times their pre-promotion revenue
- TV money jumped from €6.1m to €40.4m thanks to LaLiga’s broadcast distributions
- Ticketing hit a club record of nearly €2.3 million — they’d never previously broken the million mark
- Commercial revenue (sponsorship, merch, advertising) came in at €9.3 million, almost triple the year before
They’ve also just secured a 50-year exclusive operating concession for Estadio Ontime Butarque from the local council, in exchange for a €17 million fee. Long-term thinking, that.
The club’s valuation was pegged at €52.1 million in their promotion year, up from €20.8 million the season prior. For context, Blue Crow originally paid €39 million for 99% of the club back in 2022 — one of the top-three deals in Segunda División history.
It’s a proper little operation they’re building in south-west Madrid. Whether they bounce straight back up to LaLiga is another matter entirely.
Source: MARCA – Sport Business