The Business of Sport and the Importance of Play

Over the years, Crest Forums has hosted more than 75 family office discussions across a remarkably wide range of subjects. Some have explored emerging opportunities in healthcare, energy, technology and precious metals. Others have taken us into more difficult territory, including mental health, geopolitics and, increasingly, defence.

Our recent Sports Forum in London felt different.

Around the table were family office principals, CIOs and advisors, including families already involved in football, Formula 1, cricket and horse racing, alongside others beginning to explore sport as an investment theme.

The afternoon examined a global industry changing quickly. Team valuations have risen, ownership models are evolving and sophisticated capital is moving into areas extending well beyond traditional club ownership. Media, intellectual property, technology, data, fan engagement and new business models are creating an increasingly broad ecosystem around the sports people have followed for generations.

Yet throughout the afternoon, the conversation repeatedly returned to something less easily measured.

Why people care about sport in the first place.

From Passion to a Global Investment Market

Sport has long attracted successful individuals and families, often through a personal connection to a team, community or particular pursuit. What is changing is the breadth and sophistication of the opportunity surrounding it.

We began the afternoon with Laurie and Amber Pinto of Pinto Capital, exploring sport through both an M&A and family capital lens.

Our fireside conversation looked at the evolution of sports ownership and the increasingly diverse ways families are participating in the sector. The discussion also highlighted an interesting characteristic of sport as an asset class: financial considerations frequently exist alongside passion, legacy and personal connection.

Those motivations do not necessarily compete with one another. In many cases, they help explain why family capital has occupied such an enduring place within sport.

The conversation then moved to European football with Steven Aitkenhead and the A.GAIN Capital team, who shared their approach to investing in the business of football.

Finally, Johnny Chen and Sacha Beharie of Prospect Markets introduced a very different perspective on the sports economy through prediction markets and the extraordinary levels of engagement surrounding global sporting events.

The three perspectives were deliberately different. Together, they provided a useful illustration of just how broad the business of sport has become.

Beyond Team Ownership

For families looking at the sector today, the opportunity can extend considerably beyond acquiring a team or taking an ownership position in a club.

New businesses are developing around how sport is financed, distributed, consumed and experienced. Technology is changing how supporters interact with teams and leagues. Media and intellectual property continue to expand the commercial reach of sporting brands, while data and digital platforms are creating entirely new forms of participation.

The discussion around our table reflected this breadth.

Families with direct experience in sport shared perspectives with those looking at the sector for the first time. Questions moved easily between valuations and ownership structures, fan engagement, football economics, technology and the practical realities of investing in an industry where commercial decisions can carry considerable emotional and cultural significance.

As is often the case at Crest Forums, some of the most useful perspectives came from families sharing their own experiences with one another.

Why We Play

There was another reason this particular forum felt timely.

Earlier this summer, Toronto had the privilege of hosting part of the World Cup. What was memorable was not simply what happened on the pitch, but what happened throughout the city.

People wore the jerseys of their countries. Pubs emptied onto the streets with cheering fans. Cars drove through neighbourhoods covered in flags, horns sounding, while complete strangers cheered them on from the pavement.

For a little while, many of the things which normally separate people seemed less important.

Sport gave everyone something in common.

It was a useful reminder amid conversations increasingly dominated by conflict, security, technology and other serious global challenges.

There is serious business behind sport. The economics are significant, the capital increasingly sophisticated and the opportunities worthy of careful consideration.

Yet its commercial power remains closely connected to something much more human.

Sport gives people a reason to participate, compete, celebrate and belong. It creates traditions within families, creates heroes and connections between strangers. It gets people together, fills stadiums and neighbourhood pitches, and occasionally reminds adults of something children understand instinctively.

Sometimes it is simply good to simply get outside and play.