David Beckham becomes Britain’s first billionaire sportsman on rich list

David Beckham became Britain’s first billionaire sportsman as the latest Rich List showed how a small group of names are pulling further away from the rest of the country’s wealthy elite. The combined fortune of David and Victoria Beckham was put at £1.185bn, while the minimum wealth needed to reach the list slipped to £340m.

The Sunday Times Rich List 2026 covered Britain’s 350 richest people or families and counted 157 UK billionaires, 20 fewer than four years ago. At the top, Sanjay Hinduja, Dheeraj Hinduja and family were again ranked first with £38bn, a reminder that Britain’s wealth remains heavily concentrated even as some fortunes have grown sharply and others have fallen back.

The Beckhams’ rise was tied to two businesses with very different profiles. David Beckham’s stake in Inter Miami gained value after Lionel Messi signed through 2028, while Victoria Beckham’s fashion line was said to have topped £100m in revenue. Together, those assets helped propel the couple past the billion-pound mark and turned Brand Beckham into one of the most lucrative celebrity-business partnerships in Britain.

The Gallagher brothers also joined the list for the first time, with Noel and Liam Gallagher estimated at a combined £375m. Their fortune was boosted by Oasis’s sell-out reunion tour, which ran 41 shows between July and November 2025 and reportedly generated almost £400m at the box office. The reunion also appeared to strengthen the market for the group’s song rights, adding another potential layer to the brothers’ wealth.

The year’s biggest gainer was Nik Storonsky, whose wealth climbed from £6.97bn to £16.41bn after a fundraising round that valued Revolut at £55.6bn. At the other end of the scale, Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s fortune fell nearly £2bn to £15.19bn, while Sir James Dyson’s wealth dropped by £8bn to £12bn.

Robert Watts, the Rich List compiler, called the year a “tale of two exoduses.” The phrase captured a stark split in Britain’s wealth map: fast-growing fortunes in sport, finance and consumer brands on one side, and sharp reversals among industrial and ownership-based empires on the other.