Will Smith, Tom Brady and Rafael Nadal dial in to a Zoom call. No, this is not the setup of a joke – in the star-studded world of E1, it’s simply a regularly scheduled meeting of owners.
Launched in 2024 as the first ever all-electric raceboat championship, the E1 Series – partly bankrolled by the Saudi government-controlled Public Investment Fund (PIF) – boasts nine teams headed up by some of sport and entertainment’s most recognizable names.
In Brady, Nadal, Virat Kohli, Didier Drogba and LeBron James – who launched a team ahead of the 2025 season – E1’s ownership roster features all-time greats spanning American football, tennis, cricket, soccer and basketball respectively. Add in actor Smith and singer Marc Anthony, and their collective résumé has some impressive highlights.
Yet for Italian E1 CEO and co-founder Rodi Basso, it is not just the owners’ reputations that make them so valuable to the fledgling “sport and entertainment platform” – it’s their combined “1.1 billion-strong” social media following.
Smith, was in attendance at E1’s most recent event, in Doha in February, sharing footage from the race weekend around the Qatari capital’s Pearl Island with his 69.6 million Instagram followers.
His Westbrook Racing team finished fourth, with Nadal’s capturing its maiden E1 victory, finishing ahead of teams headed by DJ Steve Aoki and football icon Didier Drogba respectively.
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