Black Knight Sports and Entertainment, the sports investment vehicle of US billionaire Bill Foley, is reportedly set to acquire English rugby union side the Exeter Chiefs, further expanding its sports holdings in the territory.
Exeter club members will vote in May to approve the deal, which has already been made, that will see Black Knight acquire a majority stake in the club from current chief Tony Rowe.
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Foley most notably owns the US ice hockey franchise Las Vegas Golden Knights, and through the Black Knight Football Club arm also owns English Premier League soccer side AFC Bournemouth, top-flight French side FC Lorient, and New Zealand-based Australian A-League club Auckland FC.
This deal may also include the club’s 15,600-capacity Sandy Park home, which Rowe acquired from the club in 2022 as a means of pumping investment into the side to ameliorate the Covid-19 pandemic-induced financial difficulties.
Since earning promotion to the top flight in the 2009-10 campaign, the Chiefs have been a strong addition to the Premiership (now known as Prem Rugby).
This included a healthy period between 2015 and 2021, where the club won two Premiership Championships, and finished runners-up in each of the other four occasions.
The latter of those two championship triumphs in the 2019-20 campaign also saw the team win the Champions Cup continental competition.
This season, the Chiefs sit fourth in the 10-team Prem table after 13 of 18 fixtures, a semi-final berth in the European Challenge Cup, and also finished runners-up in the Prem Rugby Cup knockout competition, falling to Leicester Tigers in the final.
Foley is, then, buying a club with a strong history of recent success, but without the financial backing to leverage that into commercial success off the pitch.
Indeed, in a recent interview with the UK’s Guardian publication, Tony Rowe said: "I’ve effectively run a business for the last 30-odd years for a shareholder who’s got no money. What I’m looking forward to is an investor who’s got some money. That’ll be a massive difference for me."
In the 2024-25 campaign, the club posted a financial loss of £10.3 million ($13.9 million), compounded by its worst-ever on-field showing with a ninth-placed finish.
The small population of Exeter, only around 130,000, may prove a stumbling block, although Foley has seen relative success with his investment in Bournemouth despite the club’s own small stadium (which is smaller than Exeter’s) and market area.
On the takeover, GlobalData Sport analyst Tom Subak-Sharpe discussed what this takeover illustrates about the current state of Prem Rugby.
Subak-Sharpe said: "The proposed acquisition of Exeter Chiefs by AFC Bournemouth’s owners underlines just how financially fragile even established Prem Rugby clubs have become—and why, from a commercial standpoint, the RFU Council has moved to scrap automatic promotion and relegation in an effort to make the league more investable.
"Exeter posted a loss in 2024-25 and has faced sustained deficits, a pattern mirrored across much of the league, with chairman Tony Rowe acknowledging he can no longer underwrite the club’s ambitions alone.
"Against that financial strain, Black Knight Football Club’s arrival would provide not only capital but the commercial expertise to move Exeter onto a more contemporary, growth-oriented footing. That the club reportedly spoke to more than 80 potential investors before choosing Bill Foley’s group underlines both the severity of the squeeze and how few bidders have the capacity to invest meaningfully."
Upon competition of the deal, the Chiefs would be the third Prem Rugby club to be sold since the start of the 2025-26 campaign.
The trend began when energy drink giant and prominent multi-sport ownership group Red Bull completed its acquisition of Newcastle Falcons back in August, immediately renaming them to the Newcastle Red Bulls.
That deal for the Falcons, who have finished bottom of the Premiership in each of the last three seasons, still carried a reported fee of £39 million.
In March, UK entrepreneur James Dyson acquired a 50% stake in Prem champions Bath Rugby, also for a reported eight-figure fee.
That was the first Prem Rugby team sale since the RFU governing body announced a major revamp to its club pyramid, separating the top-flight from the lower tiers.
This move effectively eliminates promotion and relegation between the Prem and the second-tier Champ Rugby, establishing the top-flight as a standalone 10-team division, to add as many as two expansion teams by the 2029-30 campaign.
One knock-on effect of that change is that it preserves media rights values for all clubs by eliminating the prospect of relegation, which in turn will increase sale values.
Simon Massie-Taylor, chief executive of Prem rugby, claimed at the time that Dyson's investment "confirms just how attractive Prem Rugby now is to investors."
Subak-Sharpe continued: "This Exeter transaction reads as an endorsement of the RFU’s February 2026 shift to a licensing and application route into Prem Rugby from 2026–27, rather than automatic promotion and relegation. Investors want a competition they can model: secure cashflows, predictable exposure, and reduced tail-risk.
"Relegation delivers an abrupt revenue shock that can derail multi-year plans and strip value from the asset almost overnight. Ring-fencing—controversial, particularly among supporters—reduces that volatility, making cashflows more predictable and the league, arguably, easier to finance and therefore more sustainable.
"Ultimately, Exeter’s prospective sale is less a one-off rescue and more a signal of where Prem Rugby is heading: toward consolidation, institutional capital, and protected league status. The key question now is whether this investment wave can deliver sustainability without eroding competitive jeopardy and community identity."
