John Charles Textor (born September 30, 1965) is an American businessman and the founder of Eagle Football Holdings. Through Eagle Football, he is the majority owner of Botafogo (Brazil), Olympique Lyonnais (France), and RWDM Brussels (Belgium). Under his ownership, Botafogo won the 2024 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A and the 2024 Copa Libertadores, while RWDM earned promotion to the Belgian Pro League in 2023. He previously held a minority stake in Crystal Palace, which he sold in July 2025 for a reported £190 million.[Reuters. "John Textor sells Crystal Palace stake for £190m."
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Textor is also the former executive chairman of the streaming television service FuboTV.
Early life
Textor was born in 1965 and is a member of the extended du Pont family.
He has stated that he grew up in a middle-class family in the Palm Beach area and spent summers working for freight delivery companies.
In his youth, Textor competed in freestyle skateboarding events in Florida with the Sims Skateboards team. He was listed as a competitor in 1978 issues of National Skateboard Review representing Sims,[Snyder, Craig. A Secret History of the Ollie: Volume 1 – The 1970s. Black Salt Press, 2015, p. 464. ] and Snyder's companion contest index also records Florida events that summer featuring junior and boys divisions.
Textor has said he retired from competitive skateboarding in the early 1980s after sustaining a head injury, which led him to focus on education and technology interests.
Business career
Textor's early business career was shaped through Wyndcrest Partners, the private investment firm he founded in the mid-1990s.[ MarketScreener – John Textor executive profile, retrieved September 2025.] In the years that followed, he used Wyndcrest as the vehicle for a series of investments in internet and entertainment companies, including Art Technology Group, BabyUniverse, and the visual effects studio Digital Domain.
Wyndcrest Partners and Textor were sued by VIVA Investment Partners AG, a Zurich-based firm, on allegations of fraud and conspiracy to defraud in connection with the FuboTV transaction. VIVA Investment Partners is represented by the Miami-based law firm Reed Smith.
Action Sports
Sims Snowboards
Having acquired Sims Snowboards in 1996,
Internet Businesses
Art Technology Group
Textor's holding company, Wyndcrest Partners, funded the struggling company in 1996.
JesterDigital
According to The Palm Beach Post, Textor's Jester Digital created an internet-based 3-D multi-user virtual world, referred to as the "metaverse" in 1999.
Virtual Bank/Lydian Trust Company
Textor was a founding director of Virtual Bank in the year 2000, an Internet banking startup. Virtual Bank was a multi-billion dollar diversified financial services company and included a private wealth business known as Lydian Trust Company.
BabyUniverse
In the early 2000s, Textor took control of BabyUniverse,
Digital Domain
In May 2006, Textor as one of the principals of Wyncrest Holdings, acquired Digital Domain. Other principals included film director Michael Bay and former NFL player Dan Marino. According to Variety magazine, an inside source claimed that the buyers purchased the company for an estimated $35 million.
Digital Domain won an Academy Award in 2009 for Achievement in Visual Effects for creating a believable digital human actor in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. This achievement, known as the ‘Holy Grail of "Visual Effects" by The Hollywood Reporter.
In 2011, Digital Domain Media Group entered into the film production business with a major investment into the feature film Ender's Game.
Textor's team of around 20 artists organized the 2012 appearance of Virtual Tupac Shakur at the Coachella Valley Music Festival.
Digital Domain went bankrupt in 2012 and a short time later, Textor was sued by the state of Florida for $80M.
The Supreme Court of New York and the Inspector General of the State of Florida cleared Textor of any financial wrongdoing,
SEC filings demonstrate that Textor used the award of these technology assets to launch the business that would ultimately become fuboTV.
These early ventures through Wyndcrest established Textor's reputation as an investor in technology and media companies, leading to later roles in digital media, virtual production, and professional sports ownership.
Pulse Evolution
In late 2013, Textor organized a group of former Digital Domain employees to create Pulse Evolution Corporation.
In 2017, Textor, René Eichenberger, and Pulse Evolution were sued by Swiss investors on allegations of fraud, conspiracy to defraud, and operating a Ponzi scheme.
Technology, Media and Entertainment
fuboTV (Facebank Group)
According to a 2019 SEC filing, Facebank Group previously operated as Pulse Evolution Group and Recall Studios.
In April 2020, Textor completed the acquisition of fuboTV Media via a Zoom call.[57][58] The company subsequently went public,[59] and within two years reached a market value of more than $6 billion on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).[60]
In the spring of 2020, Textor resigned from his post as Executive Chairman of fuboTV. At the time of his resignation from fuboTV, and through completion of the company's IPO on the NYSE, Textor remained the largest shareholder of fuboTV.
FuboTV grew rapidly in value as a public company, moving from the over-the-counter market, to the NYSE, to the Russell 3000 index in only nine months.
Football
Crystal Palace F.C.
In August 2021, Textor acquired a roughly 40 percent stake in Crystal Palace F.C., later increasing his ownership to approximately 45 percent by mid-2024.[Reuters. "U.S. businessman John Textor buys stake in Crystal Palace." 11 August 2021. [2]][Financial Times. "US tech entrepreneur puts Crystal Palace stake up for sale." 24 May 2024. [3]] He invested in upgrading the club's youth academy and was part of the ownership group when Palace won their inaugural FA Cup in the 2024–25 season.[AP News. "Crystal Palace lifts FA Cup for the first time." 25 May 2025. [4]] In July 2025, Textor sold his stake to New York Jets owner Woody Johnson in a deal reportedly worth £190 million.
RWDM Brussels
Textor acquired Belgian club RWD Molenbeek in December 2021.[EU News. "Molenbeek changes name: Daring Brussels is back." 24 June 2025. [5]]
Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas
In early 2022, Textor acquired Botafogo, which was grappling with debt and poor infrastructure. His data-driven strategy led to a dramatic revival: Botafogo won consecutive Taça Rio (2023 and 2024), the 2024 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, and its first-ever Copa Libertadores.[Reuters. "From fallen giants to giant‑killers: Botafogo’s remarkable revival." 22 June 2025. [6]][Reuters. "Botafogo stun PSG in Club World Cup thriller." 20 June 2025. [7]][Sports Illustrated. "2025 Ballon d'Or Men's Club of the Year nominees." 2025. [8]] In late 2025, Botafogo was banned by FIFA from registering new players for three transfer windows after failing to pay the remaining transfer fee for Thiago Almada to Atlanta United.
Olympique Lyonnais (OL Groupe)
In December 2022, Textor gained a controlling stake in Olympique Lyonnais through OL Groupe for $846 million.[Reuters. "Lyon to remain in Ligue 1 after successful appeal." 9 July 2025. [9]][The Guardian. "Lyon's demotion 'incomprehensible,' says Textor." 6 July 2025. [10]] In June 2025, Textor resigned from his leadership position due to the poor financial state of Lyon.
Eagle Football Holdings Limited
Formed in September 2022, Eagle Football Holdings is the holding company through which Textor consolidated his football assets—Crystal Palace, RWDM Brussels, Botafogo, and Olympique Lyonnais and established a multi-club infrastructure for shared scouting, player development, and analytics.[Reuters. "Football club investor Eagle files for US IPO." 14 June 2025. [11]] In 2025, Textor publicly discussed his business relationship with Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis, confirming that their clubs had engaged in multiple transfer dealings over several seasons.
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