Football Manager is owned by Sega Sammy (Japan, TSE: 6460), which acquired the brand in 2006.[1][2] Football Manager was founded in 2004 in London and was independent until 2006.
This ownership is reported in official statements but has not yet been matched to a regulatory filing.
Evidence: SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS Integrated Report 2025, SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS INC, 26 September 2025. Last checked .
Football Manager simulates running a football club in extraordinary statistical depth, and its player database is detailed enough that real clubs have used it in scouting. It has been cited in divorce proceedings more than once. Its developer Sports Interactive previously made the Championship Manager series and kept the database and code when that partnership ended, which is why the two series diverged so sharply.
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
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See the full Sega Sammy brand portfolio (9) →
Sega Sammy controls 9 brands on Brandtree, 4 of them in internet & digital.
The 69 brands in video games on Brandtree belong to 18 owners. The largest is Take-Two, with 7; Sega Sammy has 4.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Fantasy Westward Journey | NetEase | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong |
| 2K | Take-Two | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Apex Legends | EA | 🇺🇸 United States |
| eFootball | Konami | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Bingo Blitz | Playtika | 🇮🇱 Israel |
| Mega Man | Capcom | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Animal Crossing | Nintendo | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Clash of Clans | Tencent | 🇨🇳 China |
Sega Sammy is a publicly listed company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, founded in 2004. Brandtree records 9 brands under its control, and it is listed as TSE: 6460.
Sega Sammy was formed in 2004 when Sega, which had left the console business three years earlier, merged with a pachinko machine manufacturer. The combination funded Sega's continued game development from an entirely unrelated Japanese gambling business.
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 552 brands that began in the United Kingdom. 291 of them (53%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country, Football Manager among them.
Sega made Sports Interactive a wholly owned subsidiary in 2006. The London studio had split from its previous publisher two years earlier, losing the Championship Manager name in the process and rebuilding the same game as Football Manager. Sega bought the studio and the new name together. Sega Sammy records the year but not the day, and has never published a price.
The parent company of Football Manager is Sega Sammy, a publicly listed company headquartered in Japan.
Football Manager originated in the United Kingdom in 2004, but it is owned today by Sega Sammy, which is headquartered in Japan. So Football Manager is a British-origin brand under Japanese ownership.
Sega Sammy completed its acquisition of Football Manager in 2006. The price was not disclosed.
Football Manager was an independent company from its founding in 2004 in London until Sega Sammy acquired it in 2006.
Yes. As of 16 September 2026, Football Manager is still owned by Sega Sammy. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
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