Public sports stocks have been on a tear:
- DraftKings: +37% over the last year
- Dick’s Sporting Goods: +304% last five years.
- TKO Group (UFC + WWE): +331% last five years.
- Amer Sports (Wilson, Arc’teryx, Salomon): 3x since IPO in 2024
Today, I want to break down the history of the public sports market (and where I see it going next).
Let’s Dive In 👇
The Market Today
First, you have to define…
“What is considered a public sports company?”
Here’s a good breakdown chart of public sports stocks vs the market:
Drake Star breaks it down across four categories:
- Sports Franchises
- Fantasy/Esports/Betting
- Athlete Performance/Analytics
- Digital Media/OTT/Broadcasting
Their chart encompasses roughly 40 companies (however, I think it’s still a bit limiting).
The most significant challenge when categorizing this…
Any company that goes public typically has multiple revenue streams (and also touches multiple different industries).
For example, most of us would label Tesla as an automotive company, but they also have Solar, Robotics, etc.
To truly define sports companies, I think we would need to include many more stocks.
And every sports investor (outside of just franchise investors) will tell you that they’re looking to bet on companies that touch sports, but can expand to many other categories.
History of Sports Franchises Going Public
Many of us are familiar with the unique case of the Green Bay Packers…
They’ve existed as a publicly held nonprofit corporation since 1923, with over 537,000 shareholders, but their “shares” function more like community membership than true equity (no dividends, no resale, limited rights).
Fast forward to 1986…
The Boston Celtics became the first US sports franchise to go public by offering 40% of the team as limited partnership shares to the general public:
- raised $48.1 million
- franchise valued at ~$120 million
- owners retained a controlling 59% stake
The move introduced a new level of financial transparency, allowing the owners to tap public capital while preserving decision-making control.
It didn’t last too long though…
By 2002, the limited partnership structure was acquired by the Boston Basketball Partnership, which took the team private again. However, the experiment demonstrated that public capital could play a role in sports ownership.
And we’ve seen a slight rise in recent years…
U.S. Publicly Traded Sports Franchises
The Atlanta Braves are traded on Nasdaq under BATRA and BATRK (to note: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is a shareholder).
You can see how the team is the IP center…but it’s much more than just a sports asset (media, real estate, apparel, etc).
Other ones:
- Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. owns the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, along with affiliate teams.
- Rogers Communications owns the Toronto Blue Jays, Maple Leafs, and Raptors.
- Liberty Media, traded as FWONA / FWONK, owns Formula 1.
- TKO Group Holdings is a merged public entity encompassing UFC and WWE.
And this has expanded far beyond just North America…
International Publicly Traded Clubs
These are standalone sports clubs traded on non-U.S. exchanges (mostly European):
- Juventus (Serie A, Italy)
- Manchester United (EPL).
- AFC Ajax (Eredivisie, Netherlands)
- Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga, Germany)
- Celtic F.C., Benfica, F.C. Copenhagen, F.C. Porto, Roma, S.L. Benfica, Sporting CP, and others
What’s Next for Public Sports Franchises?
The public sports franchise market is still small.
But the ground is shifting…
The Bullish Case
There are two strong arguments for why we’ll see more sports franchises IPO in the years ahead.
First, private equity has already cracked open the door, with firms like Arctos and Sixth Street having already deployed billions into franchise ownership (crazy to think this wasn’t even allowed a decade ago).
Now that PE is welcome, it sets a clear precedent: public capital could follow as the next logical liquidity outlet.
Second, the fan-to-shareholder pathway fits perfectly with today’s investing culture.
People are accustomed to buying fractional shares on apps, trading crypto, or owning ETFs tied to their interests.
Fan engagement naturally lends itself to investor engagement (as it represents more than just money but emotional equity).
The Contrarian Case
For all the reasons sports franchises could go public, there are just as many arguments for why it may not happen anytime soon.
Highlighting the key ones:
- Trophy Assets: Owners don’t see their franchises as just financial assets, but as legacy holdings and cultural symbols.
- Control: Going public means ceding a degree of control to shareholders, opening themselves up to quarterly scrutiny & activist investors.
- League Politics: Commissioners and fellow owners have an incentive to maintain exclusivity and resist a precedent that could introduce outside pressures.
- Volatility: European clubs like Manchester United and Juventus demonstrate how stock prices can swing wildly based on on-field performance.
And just like we’re seeing across other industries…
There’s the reality that other private capital already exists (PE firms, sovereign wealth, ultra-wealthy individuals).
Franchises can raise cash/liquidate without ever going public.
Sports Companies
While I don’t think we’ll see many new sports franchises go public in the near term.
I believe we’ll have some more in the broader sense:
- Groups like TKO (UFC + WWE) make a ton of sense. Combining media assets with sports.
- More discussion about actual investors taking their broad-based portfolios public, which include a blend of sports assets (a Fenway Sports Group for example).
- With so much more private equity in the space, they will help consolidate assets, which could then go public (Teamworks or Hudl come to mind here).
Some companies we could see IPO in the near future:
As sports continue to bleed into more adjacent industries, at least a few will inevitably test their luck with the public markets.
- More public sports companies = more LP liquidity = more investments into the next generation of sports assets.
I’m excited to see where this all heads!
