Real Bedford FC are eyeing a rise to the English Football League after securing billionaire investment.
The eighth-tier club are owned by local cryptocurrency podcaster Peter McCormack.
talkSPORTMcCormack is eyeing the Football League with Real Bedford[/caption]
He recently secured an investment of more than £3.5million from the Winklevoss twins.
Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have a net worth of over £2billion.
The pair were once involved in an infamous legal battle with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg which inspired the film The Social Network.
Their involvement in Real Bedford comes three years on from McCormack’s arrival at the club.
He has since helped make them profitable in each of the last two seasons.
Following promotion last year, the club are now eyeing a rise up the leagues.
Reflecting on their journey so far, McCormack told talkSPORT: “I decided to establish ourselves as the bitcoin club for two reasons.
“Firstly, on the commercial side, I could attract international sponsors. We did a five-year front of shirt deal with Gemini worth half-a-million pounds. It’s not a bad deal for a club down in the eighth tier.
“We’ve got a number of really good sponsors covering our men’s and women’s side. We also sell a lot of merch.
“Since we established this club three years ago, we’ve sold over £300,000 of merch to over 60 countries.
“So all the people around the world that are interested in the idea of bitcoin, a lot of them have followed our club.”
As for the arrival of the Winklevoss twins, he added: “I think for a couple of reasons. The first one is they’re investors.
“The money came from Winklevoss Capital, which is their family office. I went to them with a plan and said, ‘I think I can take a team from the bottom of the English pyramid to the top of the English pyramid.’
“Obviously a lot of people have laughed at me before. But I explained it as a plan how we would do this both commercially and financially.
“Obviously down at the bottom, it’s a lot easier. But I showed them the trajectory of firstly how we get into the Football League within a decade and then following that, how we would consider trying to then go from League Two and up beyond there.
“So I showed them commercially how it could work. But at the same time, we are the bitcoin club. They are investors in bitcoin, they own a number of bitcoin companies.
“I think for them it was just something that if they didn’t do, it would have been another billionaire in bitcoin. They wanted to be the ones to do it.
“I’ve known them for a number of years and I’ve worked with them for a number of years. Everything I’ve done, I’ve delivered on. So I think they believed I could do this.
“I think English football is exciting. I think what’s happened in the US with Ted Lasso has opened this window to people. What’s happened with Wrexham has opened a new window into non-league football.
“The thing is, people have looked at the investors, ‘Oh, they could have bought a whole club at a higher level.’ But the problem is, then that would cover the huge investment of how many promotions you have ahead of you.
“With this, that money will last us for years and we have kind of an exciting journey ahead of us. Hopefully the men’s and women’s get promoted again this year.
“We’re fully budgeted to get promoted all the way to the Football League. So I think for them, it’s quite an exciting thing to become part of this.”
Real Bedford are currently three points clear at the top of the Southern League Division One Central with a game in hand.
Meanwhile, their women’s team are also top of their own league after winning a treble last season.
A further promotion this year would bring more challenges, though, with Bedford Town already playing in the league above.
The two clubs’ grounds are only separated by a fence, making a merger between them a realistic possibility.
McCormack expects this to happen, adding: “Only one club out of the two is going to be able to do this.
“I’ve maintained a good relationship with their chairman, John Taylor.
talkSPORTMcCormack has hinted at a merger with Bedford Town next season[/caption]
“I approached him recently and said, ‘Look, between the two clubs, we have the pieces of the jigsaw that can get us into the Football League. I think it would be time to merge the clubs.’
“So we made an offer, they’ve accepted it and hopefully by the end of the season the clubs will merge and that will make us just a much stronger footballing outfit here in Bedford.”
Reaching the seventh-tier would see Real Bedford move just three promotions away from the Football League.
If the club continue on their current trajectory, they could be lining up in League Two by the start of the 2028/29 season.