10 Facts About Matthew Benham

Matthew Alexander Benham was born on May 1968 and is a British businessman who is the owner of English Premier League club Brentford.

Matthew Benham is the founder and owner of Smartodds, a statistical research company for professional gamblers, and owner of Matchbook betting exchange.

Matthew Benham made a significant sum of money in the Asian betting market, using a statistical model developed by Stuart Coles and Mark Dixon at Lancaster University, which was able to predict the probabilities of football scores more accurately than the bookies.

Matthew Benham first made contact with his boyhood football club when he read a 2005 article in The Independent saying that supporters' trust Bees United, which had taken over running Brentford, were "desperately seeking a few wealthy supporters to invest", so they could buy out previous owner Ron Noades.

Bees United would then have the option to repay the loans to Matthew Benham and buy back his shares, while Matthew Benham held the option to take over the club as a majority owner.

Ten days after becoming the club's new owner, Matthew Benham purchased a parcel of land near Kew Bridge railway station, where he pledged to build a new stadium, close to its existing stadium at Griffin Park.

In 2013, Matthew Benham promoted Mark Warburton, another former City trader, as manager.

At the time, it was widely reported in the media that Warburton was unhappy with the fact that Matthew Benham wanted to run Brentford based on "mathematical modelling", and with his elimination of the manager's veto on new signings, with some reports suggesting that Matthew Benham went as far as insisting on long-ball tactics and hiring a set-piece coach.

When season tickets went on sale for the new Brentford stadium, Matthew Benham instructed the club's commercial department not to "fleece the fans", and keep pricing affordable.

Matthew Benham has rejected at least one offer to buy Brentford.