The Investment Playbook: How Capital is Reshaping Sports

Money is changing the way we watch, play, and think about sports. From private equity to athlete-backed venture funds, the business behind the games is expanding faster than ever.

Imagine your favorite soccer team just lost the greatest player in the history of the sport, is over a billion dollars in debt, and can’t even sign new talent. That was FC Barcelona’s reality in 2022. As a fan, watching the legendary club scramble to stay afloat was surreal. Then a name I had never heard before popped up in the headlines: Sixth Street Partners. When I learned they had bought a share of Barcelona’s future TV revenue, it sent me down the rabbit hole of private equity’s growing influence in sports.

Sports as the Next High-Growth Asset Class

In 2024, NFL owners approved private equity funds to own up to 10 percent of a franchise, following in the footsteps of other major sports leagues around the world. This marked a defining moment for how capital interacts with competition. What once was reserved for an exclusive group of billionaire owners and media giants has now become a rapidly-evolving investment ecosystem.

Institutional investors view sports as a unique asset, as it combines closed-system business models with passionate, loyal fans to create dependable returns. Furthermore, sports revenues now go far beyond tickets or TV rights. They include streaming platforms, analytics startups, and fan-engagement apps that continue to inject capital into the industry.

As of October 2025, Sixth Street has completed the most recent PE transaction in the NFL, buying 3% of the New England Patriots at a $9 Billion valuation. As a lifelong fan of the Pats, this one is exciting. Investments like these help sports teams fund major projects, such as the $250 million renovation of Gillette Stadium in 2023, which added the largest video board at an outdoor stadium in the country.

Sixth Street is not the only PE firm making noise in the sports world. Arctos Sports Partners, for instance, holds stakes across all major U.S. leagues, while CVC Partners has built a portfolio that spans European soccer, Formula 1, and rugby. According to PitchBook, sports-related deal activity has grown nearly 40% since 2018. That kind of surge puts sports among the fastest-expanding asset classes in the world today.

The Rise of the Athlete-Investor

Deal-making from private equity firms is not the only factor reshaping the business of sports today. Superstar athletes are also becoming major players off the field. For example, Serena Williams and Kevin Durant, through their firms Serena Ventures and Thirty Five Ventures, are taking equity stakes in companies across sectors like fintech, health, media, and sports technology.

Their involvement reflects a broader transformation in the industry. Athletes are turning their brand power into ownership and using their platforms to drive innovation, either by launching their own funds or partnering with existing ones to back emerging startups.

Will Ventures, co-founded by former NFL player Isaiah Kacyvenski, manages a $150 million fund focused on the intersection of sports, health, and technology. Its portfolio includes startups like Just Women’s Sports, Looped, and Tempus Ex Machina, along with investments in new leagues such as the National Cycling League.

Courtside Ventures, backed by team owners and athletes like Larry Fitzgerald, has raised more than $100 million to support companies such as The Athletic, Beam, and FanAI, which are all centered around fan engagement and media innovation.

Even beyond those funds, companies such as Whoop, Catapult Sports, and Sportlogiq (all fueled by venture capital) are using data and AI to optimize performance and reduce injuries. Together, these ventures show how athletes and modern VC funds are redefining what it means to invest in sports.

The Future of Sports Capital

This marks only the beginning of a new frontier for sports investment. In the coming decade, more North American leagues will likely follow in the footsteps of European soccer clubs by raising capital through the sale of future revenue streams such as media rights and stadium events. We could even see major franchises experiment with fractional ownership. This may include publicly-owned models like the Green Bay Packers or new investment vehicles such as Sports ETFs.

On the venture side, the focus will remain on the ecosystem around the game — performance tech, fan engagement platforms, and analytics tools that are transforming how athletes train, fans interact, and leagues operate.

It is an exciting time to be involved in sports, where being a fan and understanding the business have never been more interconnected. As investors, athletes, and fans reshape the sports-business landscape, it is clear that what was once just entertainment has now become one of the most compelling asset-classes in the world.

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Lead Editor of The GTVC Publication: Sash Vijayakumar