MIAMI — It’s Tom Brady vs. Rafael Nadal—on the water.
This weekend in Miami marks the final race of the second season of E1, the electric boat racing series. It launched last year with a five-race season in 2024 across Saudi Arabia, Italy, Spain, and Monaco; Friday’s and Saturday’s races will be the first in U.S. waters.
Team Brady, named after the seven-time Super Bowl champion who owns the squad, is in pole position to defend its 2024 E1 title. Heading into the season finale, Brady’s team is up three points on Team Rafa, also named after its superstar owner, the 22-time tennis Grand Slam winner.
The third-place team, owned by Indian cricket star Virat Kohli, and fourth-place team of DJ Steve Aoki, are also within striking distance of the championship.
Celebrity ownership has been the biggest calling card for E1. “It kind of just happened organically,” E1 cofounder Alejandro Agag said Thursday in Miami at Future of Sports: The Next Wave, an event cohosted by Front Office Sports. Former European soccer star Didier Drogba’s involvement led to Nadal buying in, which led to Brady, and so on.
Agag also heads up the electric motorsports series Formula E and Extreme H alongside fellow E1 cofounder and CEO Rodi Basso. E1 is also one of the many sports properties that the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia has poured money into (its official name is the UIM E1 World Championship Presented by PIF). The PIF is also an investor in Formula E and Extreme H.
Alongside the PIF’s involvement, E1 has a team named after the Saudi Arabian city of Al-Ula. Team AlUla Championed by LeBron James (that’s the team’s full name) joined E1 this year. James is listed as the team’s owner, although it’s unclear whether its Saudi ties bring additional ownership stakes beyond James’s.
Other celebrity owners in E1 include actor Will Smith and singer Marc Anthony. Next year, the series has already revealed it will add a 10th entry, Team Monaco, co-owned by Monaco-based entrepreneur Chris Taylor and French 11-time kite-ski world champion Maxime Nocher. Agag said Thursday that E1 is planning to announce two more expansion teams ahead of its third season, which will give the sport a 12-team grid in 2026.
Agag is impressed with E1’s team owners’ engagement with the series. “They don’t have any obligation,” he said. “They come to the race when they want. They compete. And of course what they bring is a huge reach for the championship.”
E1’s celebrity owners even have a group chat they use for throwing jabs at one another around races. “All we do is we talk a lot of smack,” Brady told FOS in Miami, ahead of the first races.
The quarterback-turned-multisport investor said “nobody takes themselves too seriously,” and he called Anthony “one of my favorites” when it comes to trash talk. “He and I are close buddies.” Drogba? “So sweet.” Aoki? “Really fun.”
“Everyone’s involved,” Brady said. “It’s very competitive for us.”
Team owners have paid entry fees of roughly $2.6 million but are also on the hook for operational costs, including buying or renting their team’s equipment as well as building out staff. Each team is required to use a male and female pilot at every event, alternating between the two for various sessions.
Veteran sports lawyer Shirin Malkani, who advised the Miami- and Nigeria-based teams, told FOS that figuring out E1’s financial model was critical for various investors.
“That was the biggest variable and one of the things that we were trying to get as much information from the league as possible—how to really think about the costs that sit on a league,” Malkani, co-chair of the sports industry group at Perkins Coie, said. E1 does pay out some prize money at its races, but the series does not have a traditional revenue-sharing model like most U.S. sports leagues do.
For teams, a big revenue opportunity is hosting a race in their home market, which can bring millions of dollars in ticket sales, sponsorships, and hospitality. This week’s Miami race is an example of E1’s local team taking up hosting duties; other cities will have similar opportunities when E1 finalizes its 2026 race calendar.
In many cases, local governments partner with E1 teams to host races. The Lagos State government was projecting to generate $100 million in economic impact from last month’s race, although final figures have not been released.
Eventually, E1 wants to expand to 15 races, up from 7 this year. Earlier this year, Basso, E1’s CEO, said the series aims to reach a valuation of nearly $700 million by 2030.
