NBA
What is Miriam Adelson’s net worth? Who is the new owner of the Dallas Mavericks?
Billionaire Miriam Adelson, widow of Sheldon Adelson, and her family are in the process of buying a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks from Mark Cuban.
The sports world was shaken by the news last week when Miriam Adelson and her trust sold $2 billion worth of shares in the Sands Corporation, a casino operator, to buy a professional sports team, which turned out to be the Dallas Mavericks.
The deal values the Mavs at roughly $3.5 billion, making it the second-highest purchase price in league history behind only the Phoenix Suns’ $4 billion sale last year. The agreement is still subject to official NBA approval, and it remains unclear how much of an ownership stake Cuban will retain, as reports indicate he will hold control of the team’s basketball operations he has run since 2000.
Basketball fans and sports business watchers immediately wanted to know more about Adelson, the famous casino owner Sheldon Adelson’s widow, who would instantly become the third-richest majority owner—and one of the few female majority owners—in major U.S. sports if the deal goes through. The 78-year-old controls 57% of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation (LVSC) through her shares and multiple family trusts.
Miriam Adelson’s biography and net worth
Miriam Adelson was born in Israel in 1945 to Polish refugees. She studied to become a physician in Israel before coming to the U.S. to work as a substance abuse treatment specialist at New York’s Rockefeller University. There, she met Sheldon Adelson, who had divorced his first wife Sandra in 1988. The two married in Jerusalem in 1991.
Sheldon purchased the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas around the same time before adding a convention center to his holdings. The Adelson family played a significant role in the Las Vegas Sands business, with Miriam being called the “driver in the couple’s political and philanthropic activities.” The company has a market cap of $36 billion, with Miriam being the majority shareholder following Sheldon’s death in 2021 from non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Despite her involvement in the business, Miriam has continued to work in her field of care. She founded an addiction treatment clinic in Tel Aviv in 1993 and one in Las Vegas in 2000. Additionally, the Adelson family owns the Las Vegas Review-Journal and is the primary shareholder in the free weekly Israeli Newspaper Israel Hayom.
The Adelsons are well known for their political contributions. They have donated over $10 million to support Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign and were named finance vice-chairs for his inauguration. Miriam has committed to neutrality in the 2024 primary.
In 2018, Miriam Adelson was awarded the Medal of Freedom by Trump for her work as a “committed doctor, philanthropist, and humanitarian.”
According to Forbes, Adelson is the fifth-richest woman in the world and the wealthiest Israeli, with a net worth of $32.3 billion.