A consortium led by mobile gaming entrepreneur Andrew Stalbow has completed a takeover of Bath City FC in a £6m deal said to represent a record investment for non-league football.
Stalbow, who helped create the Best Fiends and Angry Birds games franchises, heads an international group of investors which also includes executives from consultancy giant Bain and Company and musician Curt Smith of seminal 80s band Tears for Fears.
The group raised £6m to buy Bath City from the supporters’ society which had owned the club since 2017 and enact an ambitious plan to take them from the seventh tier into the English Football League for the first time in their history.
“Our role is to unlock Bath City’s potential and transform the club. Our work starts today,” said Stalbow. “The partnership that we will build between the supporters, the city, the community in Twerton, the players, the coaching staff, the operating team and the investors will set us apart. This is a unique opportunity.”
Bath is one of the most notable English cities never to have experienced league football, despite its rugby union team being a mainstay of the top flight and attracting investment from billionaire Sir James Dyson.
Bath City were in the fifth tier as recently as 2012 but have struggled to return to the National League since then and were relegated to the Southern League Premier Division South last season.
London firm Carteret advises Bath City on takeover
The club was advised on the takeover and investment by Carteret, a boutique firm based on the fringes of the City of London.
“Carteret ordinarily advises on M&A and investment transactions involving Premier League and EFL clubs, but we immediately saw something exceptional in Bath City,” said CEO James Powell.
“Our objective was to find an investor group of the highest quality, with the capital, experience and ambition to realise the club’s potential. We believe Andrew and his investor group provide exactly that.
“With a record £6m-plus investment committed, Bath City now has the opportunity to become one of the standout non-league investment stories, alongside Wrexham and Salford City.”
Stalbow’s group hopes to remedy that by bringing the club’s facilities, including their Twerton Park home and training facilities, up to EFL standard and investing in data analytics.
He was part of the Rovio team behind Angry Birds before he and some colleagues left to start their own company, Seriously, which created Best Fiends. Seriously was sold to Israeli games giant Playtika for a reported $275m in 2019.