David Beckham has received a $51m (£39m) dividend from his business empire after a series of brand deals linked to the FIFA World Cup.
The former footballer appeared in about a dozen advertising campaigns during this summer’s tournament in the US, working with brands including Lenovo, McDonald’s, Bank of America, Verizon and PepsiCo’s Lay’s.
The World Cup work helped DRJB Holdings, the commercial company for Beckham’s brands business, report a record year. Revenue rose by a fifth to $110.5m, up from $92.3m in 2024, while pre-tax profits climbed to a record $65.7m, a 46% increase on 2024.
DRJB Holdings is made up of three divisions, the largest of which is DB Ventures, which covers most of Beckham’s partnerships with brands such as Hugo Boss. The company paid out $51.1m to shareholders last year, compared with $53m the previous year.
Beckham, the former England captain who retired from professional football in 2013, sold a 55% stake in his businesses in 2022 to the US group Authentic Brands for £200m. He therefore took home 45% of last year’s total dividend.
A Companies House filing due to be published next week showed a further $61.6m was paid in special dividends this year. That meant Beckham was paid about $51m.
Before this year’s World Cup, the company secured partnerships including a multiyear deal with Bank of America, under which Beckham became an ambassador for its global sports programme.
The 51-year-old also launched menswear collections for Hugo Boss, an eponymous range of spectacles for Safilo and a limited-edition Predator football boot with Adidas. He also struck a new deal for Beckham & Friends Live, a show on Paramount+ that was broadcast around the Uefa Champions League.
Beckham featured in a Stella Artois campaign alongside actor and producer Theo James to mark the beer brand’s partnership with the second season of the Netflix series The Gentlemen.
DRJB Holdings is jointly owned by Authentic Brands Group and Footwork Productions, which is controlled by David Beckham.
Corey Salter, chief executive of entertainment at Authentic Brands, said Beckham was “one of the most powerful global brands in sport, lifestyle, entertainment and much more”.
Salter added: “What these results show is that behind the Beckham brand is a strong and highly effective team within Authentic, set up with the financial discipline and strong fundamentals to continue to grow profitably through 2026 and beyond.”
DRJB Holdings includes the Seven Global division, which contains licensing agreements with companies such as Adidas. The remainder of the business is Studio 99, the production company that made the four-part Netflix documentary Beckham, released in 2023. It also produced Victoria Beckham’s Netflix documentary, released last year.
David Beckham is also an investor in businesses including the supplement specialist IM8, which he co-founded in 2024, and the honey-based fruit snack firm BeeUp.
