Last year, former Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba made an unexpected investment into Al Haboob, a camel racing club based in Saudi Arabia.
The club is the brainchild of two Saudi entrepreneurs, Omar Almaeena and Safwan Modir, who are seeking to reframe camel racing as a modern and scalable business venture.
Camel racing has roots stretching back over 1,000 years, when Arabian tribes used the sport to settle territorial disputes over land with access to surrounding seas and gulfs.
Today, the sport is dominated by Royal families and aristocrats across the Gulf Cooperation Council region, spanning Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Major meets can feature upwards of 85 entries per race, with prize money running into the tens of millions of Riyals, roughly equivalent to the £4m on offer at Ascot’s Champions Day.
Pogba, now playing for Monaco, holds a minority stake in Al Haboob described as a “decent” wedge by his camel-owning peers, and has expressed ambitions to own a camel worth $5m.
“Paul’s involvement is about the crossover between sport and global icons,” Almaeena told City AM, adding that Pogba “is invested in the team as a shareholder and understands the value of what this means.”
Almaeena and Modir are themselves stars of a hit Gulf Netflix show called Camel Quest, and their franchise growth model aims to challenge established racing operations with centuries of pedigree behind them.
Modir highlighted Pogba’s reach beyond the sport itself, saying: “You now have an entire football fan base that has been exposed to camel racing.”
The pair say that major sponsors including oil giant Shell and national Gulf banks are now backing races, a development they attribute in part to Pogba raising the sport’s wider profile.
A competitive camel can cost as little as £40,000 to buy, while top performers at major meets have been purchased by aristocratic stables, including Qatari buyers known to acquire the top ten finishers in a race to both strengthen their own ranks and weaken rivals.
For existing owners, such events can represent a near double pay-day, with approximately £500,000 available for winning the showpiece race and similar sums for selling their camel to the highest bidder.
The sport’s reputation has also been modernised following the Gulf’s decision in the early 2000s to replace child jockeys with robotic alternatives, after the US Department of State reported in 2005 that children as young as two were trafficked from Asia and exploited for racing use.
Almaeena and Modir have confirmed plans to push Al Haboob westward, with Almaeena saying “definitely” when asked whether a camel race at Royal Ascot was on the agenda, while acknowledging European importation rules and disease concerns pose a significant obstacle.
“There is a possibility that within the next 14 months we will have a race somewhere in Europe,” Almaeena claimed, signalling the club’s international ambitions are already in motion.
Modir also revealed hopes of attracting a second major sporting investor to buy into Al Haboob, saying: “Hopefully we attract Shaquille O’Neal to invest. That’s a wish that we have: Shaq on the track.”
Modir added to the broader ambition, stating: “We are going to be inspiring more people to go into this industry with the same business model we are doing.”
Camel racing remains one of the most popular pastimes across the Gulf, and with Pogba providing a globally recognised face, Al Haboob’s founders believe the sport’s biggest transfer may still be ahead of it.