Cleveland Cavaliers owners join Ricketts and Griffin bid for Chelsea

The owners of the NBA team the Cleveland Cavaliers have joined forces with one of the four remaining bidders for Chelsea as the auction of last season's Champions League winners enters its final stages.

Sky News revealed that Rock Entertainment Group (REG), which owns a string of US sports teams, has agreed to participate in the consortium led by the Chicago Cubs-owning Ricketts family and the hedge fund tycoon Ken Griffin.

Sources said on Saturday evening that Rock Entertainment Group had agreed to invest a significant - though undisclosed - sum in the bid.

The emergence of Dan Gilbert, one of the richest people in America with wealth estimated by Forbes magazine at almost $31 billion, as a participant in the auction raises the stakes still further as a quartet of bidders vie to succeed Roman Abramovich as Chelsea's owner.

As well as the Cleveland Cavaliers, REG owns the Cleveland Monsters ice hockey team, and the NBA G-League team Cleveland Charge. Mr Gilbert is also an investor in the fast-growing e-sports arena, with a big stake in 100 Thieves, which has a significant presence in e-sports in Europe.

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In total, Mr Gilbert presides over an empire of more than 100 affiliated companies across the US, employing more than 30,000 people.

He acquired majority ownership of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2005, since when the team has made the NBA Finals five times, winning the championship in 2016.

Mr Gilbert is said to have privately invested more than $400m into the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, the stadium which plays home to the Cavaliers and the Monsters. People close to him said he had also privately invested more than $25m into the Cavaliers' practice