‘28 Is My Baby’: Sam Wood’s past praise for the empire and mentor he just lost

The sudden implosion of former Bachelor star Sam Wood’s fitness empire has given CBD pause to ponder about how quickly things can change.

It was just a couple of months back, in July in fact, when Wood, a personal trainer turned reality star turned fitness mogul, waxed lyrical about his relationship with billionaire Melbourne businessman Dennis Bastas.

Bastas, through his DBG Health empire, acquired Wood’s 28 by Sam Wood online fitness business for $71 million in a high-profile deal in 2022.

Under the commercial arrangements Wood remained as frontman for the online workout platform, with his wife, Snezana Wood, whom he met on The Bachelor, often by his side promoting the business.

CBD stumbled across Wood speaking with Jacqui Felgate on the Fascinated podcast in July where the fitness identity described Bastas as “a wonderful mentor”, that it was like “having Big Brother there” and that “things are going great”.

He went on to claim he still owned part of the 28 business and that selling to DBG was “about just getting some peace of mind for my family and my future”.

“The guy that bought me, who’s a wonderful, wonderful guy, Dennis, him and I get on really, really well,” Wood added.

“He’s a brilliant business person, one of the best, and you can go to him at any time with anything.”

But on Tuesday, things weren’t going so great, with DBG severing all commercial ties with Wood “effective immediately”.

The dumping came after Wood was arrested in Noosa on Saturday and charged with domestic violence related offences.

He remains in custody in Maroochydore with his lawyer, Mathew Cuskelly, saying a bail application would be made on Thursday and that the charges against the 46-year-old would be defended.

In a second podcast, recorded with Dom Harvey in 2024, Wood shed more light on the DBG deal, saying he had fielded approaches from various companies, but sold “to the right people”.

He said one of the attractions of selling was to see “what we could do with, sort of, a powerful Big Brother behind you”.

Meanwhile, another comment on that Felgate podcast hasn’t aged well.

Wood told Felgate: “28’s my baby. It’s like my fifth kid. I’d never want it to die and I love it to bits.”

But as of Tuesday and the axing by DBG, 28 is no longer Wood’s baby with the 28 Group to “continue its great work” without him.

Melbourne property market bites former tennis boss Craig Tiley

Former Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley has taken a multimillion-dollar bath on his Melbourne home, off-loading the expansive executive home for more than $4 million under what he paid for it four years ago.

Now, Tiley is not short of a dollar with CBD recently revealing he pocketed $US2.5 million (AUS $3.5 million) for his Tennis Australia gig in the 12 months to September 30, 2025.

But, we imagine taking such a savage haircut on the Melbourne property is bound to hurt no matter who you are.

Tiley, who now runs the United States Tennis Association, paid $13.1 million for the four-bedroom property, which features a gourmet kitchen, a tennis court, heated pool and spa, on the beachfront in Aspendale in 2022.

It was listed for sale last year with an $11.5 million price tag, as Tiley and his family prepared for their US move. That was revised to $8.75 million earlier this year.

Real estate industry sources with knowledge of, but not involved with, the sale told CBD the home sold last week in the mid $7 million range. The sale price has not been made publicly available at this stage.

Experienced agent Garry Donovan at Belle Property in Mentone handled the “confidential” sale and told CBD the home sold “in line with market expectations”.

“The campaign attracted a large number of inquiries and at the end of the day, we got a result that everyone was comfortable with,” Donovan said.

Now based in Orlando, Florida, Tiley’s Tennis Australia pay cheque became public through a 990 filing in the United States, where Tennis Australia is registered as a non-profit and is required to report to the Internal Revenue Service annually.

At the time of CBD’s report, Tennis Australia insisted the figures represented in the American filings didn’t offer an accurate picture of its financials, particularly when variances in reporting periods between Australia and the US, foreign currency fluctuations and other accounting quirks such as bonuses and other payments falling between reporting cycles were considered.

With Tiley already on to bigger and better things in the US, NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo has taken the reins at Tennis Australia. Should Abdo invest in the Melbourne property market, we wish him better luck than his predecessor!