Charles Ebersol reveals inside story of £40M Chelsea deal with Infinite Athlete

Charles Ebersol, co-founder of Tempus ex Machina, the parent company of new Chelsea sponsor Infinite Athlete, discussed how the deal valued at £40 million came into place.

Ebersol revealed that he had known Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly for a while and had been discussing different operations with him and Clearlake Capital co-founder Behdad Eghbali before they settled on a front-of-shirt sponsorship deal.

He disclosed that Boehly had been monitoring what they had done with fan experience in the NFL and welcomed them to create the same for Chelsea’s 5th Stand app over the summer. 

Ebersol revealed that the numbers recorded were mind-blowing and they created a structure that allows Chelsea to build on it and take the fan experience to new heights.

When Chelsea began looking for a new front of shirt sponsors following the expiration of their deal with UK telecommunication giants Three, Infinite Athlete decided to propose a partnership.

In an interview with football journalist Ben Jacobs, Ebersol said (via Soccerex TV): “We literally had lunch in Philadelphia two days later (after floating the idea of Infinite Athlete’s sponsorship) and sort of hammered out what that would look like between Behdad and Todd and I.

“We went to the Premier League – who we are also building some stuff for them to look at – and asked ‘Would this be crazy?’ ‘Would this be something that would be worth doing?’

“We started working out what that would be like, but it took us a while to figure out the framework of the deal to make sense, but really, the goal was for the world to be introduced to this new brand.”

Ebersol was happy that Infinite Athlete had their emblem on the women’s team kits and they beat Tottenham Hotspur.

They debuted on the men’s Chelsea 2023/24 kits against Fulham and the team secured only their second league victory.