How to invest in sports

Winning money doing something you truly enjoy is never easy. In the case of sports, it might even be harder. To be paid for practicing your sport looks amazing, but for this you need hard work, talent and a sprinkle of luck. Miss any of the three ingredients and you’ll likely never make it.

There is an enormous amount of money going into the sport markets. Only in north America, the sport market size is estimated at almost $76 billion. More than millions of people playing, there are many millions that enjoy watching it. There are countless sports TV channels, sport competitions and sports companies crafting the accessories and clothing necessary for each and every discipline. Many people even like to wear sportswear, even to lazily sit on their couch. The sports market and marketing has reached an audience way beyond a clientele that would buy the items they would need to practice their activity.

Chances are, you’ll never be a great sport athlete. It’s okay, Johnathan. However, on the investing side, there are many ways to enter the sport market. Here are a few of them.

shutterstock_1414628111

Publicly traded sports companies

How to better get in the sports market than by acquiring shares of your favorite sports brand? The choice here is immense. You can invest into a company that makes sports clothes. A company that makes sports shoes. A skateboarding, canoeing, football or volleyball company. There is no shortage of example (Nike, Adidas, Asics, New Balance, to only name a few). If you have trouble picking your favorite brand, you can even go a little more global and invest in retailers: Foot Locker or Dick’s Sporting Goods.

But as previously mentioned, sports apparel manufacturers are not your only option. Indeed, as mentioned previously, you can also invest in tv channels, such as ESPN – for which you’ll have to buy a share of Disney Corp., as they own the channel.

There are many more options, such as buying shares of companies building stadiums or organizing sport competitions. Have a look around and you’ll quickly see that you have plenty of options to choose from.

shutterstock_516354493

Sports Collectibles

If any of you are familiar with the social media-famous entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuck, you must also be familiar with his passion for baseball sport cards. And indeed, it seems that some of them have become quite valuable over the years. While you might not have the greatest treasures in your parent’s basements, it’s worth having some knowledge of which item can fetch a fair value and be seen as an investment.

And this does not only hold for sports cards: autographed balls, rare jersey, vintage sports items can all be very collectibles. Believe it or not, I have even seen people trading seats from old or demolished stadiums at surprisingly important price on Ebay.

Face it, you will hardly become a billionaire flipping sports cards, but it is a fun hobby worth considering, which can fetch surprising amounts of money if done right.

shutterstock_1342048466

Team ownership

If you’re a fan of any sports, surely, you have already dreamed of owning your favorite team. Imagine the thrill of it. VIP seats at every game sipping a glass of champagne, the possibility to speak with your most admired athlete, having a say in the big decisions. And, yes, maybe even make a lot of money as the worth of your team goes up with time.

But you probably don’t have the money. To give you an idea, Manchester United’s estimated worth is around $1.65 billion. If we have a look at American hockey league, the team with the lowest value are the Phoenix Coyotes, at around… $290 million. A fair price indeed! Thankfully, there are other ways for you to enter team ownership without buying an entire club.

You can also buy shares in publicly traded sports companies, although they are not always available on every market. In football for example, there is a certain amount of choice, among which AS Roma, Juventus, Dortmund and Lazio. The American sports also have some – but few – publicly traded companies, such as the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens for the NHL, The New York Knicks and the Toronto Raptors for the NBA and the Atlanta Braves or the Toronto Blue Jays for the MLB.

And here we are. As you can see, there are many ways you can invest in sport-related companies or have an investment activity around sports. I hope this article gives you some investment ideas. Best of luck!

shutterstock_1141030394