American YouTuber MrBeast has claimed on social media that he has “bought the NFL” the day before the new season starts.
He added that he would put a “YouTuber on each team” in videos posted on X and YouTube, which have gained millions of views.
However, the world’s most-subscribed YouTuber, real name Jimmy Donaldson, is not the real owner of America’s most popular sports league.
The viral social media videos are instead a collaboration between the NFL and YouTube to promote the new season.
YouTube has gained the global rights to broadcast Friday’s game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs, taking place in Brazil (01:00 BST, Saturday).
The first game of the season is between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys on Thursday (01:20 BST, Friday).
America’s NFL is not owned by one single person or team. Instead, the league is collectively financed by its 32 teams.
Each team is owned by an individual, a private ownership group, or in the case of the Green Bay Packers, a publicly owned, non-profit organisation.
The Packers are the only team to be owned in this way, as the NFL does not allow corporate ownership.
Every team is required to be owned by an individual or a small group of owners, where one owner must hold a third of the share.
Roger Goodell is the chief executive of the NFL, known as the ‘commissioner’, and is responsible for overseeing the league’s operations – representing all 32 teams.
Since the league is owned by the 32 teams, if an individual wanted to own the NFL, they would need to buy every team.
The estimated value of all 32 teams is about $228bn (£170bn).
There would likely then be additional costs to own the NFL as a whole.
MrBeast, who has 430 million subscribers on YouTube and a show on Amazon Prime, has a net worth estimated to be about $1bn (£745m).
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