For a bit of fun on a Friday, if you could somehow invest in an NFL ETF or English Premier League ETF or similar where would you put your money? Individual sports franchises can be absolute money-making machines, but the vast majority are not publicly traded. What if you could hold the whole ‘basket’ of teams and the associated TV rights, ticket sales, merchandising etc?
In no particular order.
MLB, Baseball is an American institution but are the games too slow and boring to keep younger people engaged?
EPL, The English Premier League is popular Worldwide but beyond lucrative TV rights is there a lot to get excited about?
NFL, This is perhaps a no-brainer but maybe the sport as a whole is damaged by the concussion problems and young athletes’ willingness to get quite badly hurt?
Cricket, I am going to take the liberty to have an Imaginary Cricket ETF that contains all Test match Cricket, all the different One Day tournaments and World Cup. You get a nice mix of sleepy grassroots County cricket and the massive size and scale of Indian cricket.
NHL, Got to be some Ice Hockey fans out there and I know it’s a bit niche but obviously, it is the top sport in Canada so potentially a pretty safe and steady ETF one would think?
F1, I think this may already exist in some form or another on Freetrade, but although I find it boring a lot of people are really into it and it is truly global.
NBA, Some very popular franchises such as the Los Angeles Lakers and seemingly they can sell a LOT of clothing merchandise to people who probably don’t even follow the sport.
Some honourable mentions also to Golf, MMA and Sports Gambling/Fantasy Sports. Have I missed any sports you’d jump on if they were available as an all-league ETF? I guess the Bogleheads will immediately declare ‘why not just own the whole market’ in some sort of Vanguard All World VWRL style All Sports ETF!
