Sports cards a good investment – Baseball may be considered America’s nationwide pastime, but soccer is clearly the sport to which Americans devote the most attention today? Whether college or professional, soccer is poised to dominate television in most American homes through early February.
And with rugby ball comes US’s second national pastime: money. The amount of funds invested in soccer each year is enormous, whether through TV rights deals,
are sports cards a good investment
ad campaigns, team revenue, or just the staggering amounts people wager on games weekly. And while leagues and teams in the United States aren’t publicly traded like some European soccer clubs, you can find ways to invest in a game by looking behind the scenes.
Investing in soccer does not mean buying shares in a team; they’re all confidentially owned and don’t come on the market very often anyway. Yes, the Lime Bay Packers pretend to be publicly owned by issuing stock to season ticket holders, but they have no cash value, and you will have no say in who the team drafts, no matter how much you yell. Sorry Packers fans.
You can invest in soccer by looking at the companies on the game’s periphery. Players need uniforms, fans need food and drink, and sportsbooks need an equal amount of money to bet on equal sides of a point spread – that’s a lot of cash changing hands. Here are some ways to invest in soccer without owning a franchise.
sports betting companies
More money is wagered on soccer than on any other sport in the United States, and such bets are becoming legal in more states over time. Sports betting used to be done strictly in Las Vegas casinos, but now online sportsbooks and a renewed regulatory openness to betting have made beach ball betting calmer than ever.
DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ: DKNG) is 1 of the most prominent faces of publicly traded sportsbooks, and you’ll see plenty of commercials from them in the coming months. But DraftKings consumers struggled to profit and still spend much of its capital on customer acquisition costs. FanDuel is the most prominent online contestant, but it is privately owned.
However, companies that own land-based casinos, like Caesars Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ: CZR) and Penn entertainment inc. (NASDAQ: PENN), have also developed online sportsbooks and have begun accepting bets in numerous states. This is an area to pay care to as more conditions relax their gambling laws. A large chunk of market share remains locked behind regulatory doors – which company will take the lion’s share when they are unlocked?
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high-risk contests
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Easy deposits and fast payments
Sponsorship companies and football partners
The battle for football-watching eyeballs is never-ending at the college and professional levels. Every college bowl game has a company attached to it, every team has an official beer or car manufacturer, and even individual plays get their own segment with a creative sponsorship moniker.
Soccer partners and sponsorship companies change, so pay attention to rumours when discussing new deals. Keep an eye on who makes the uniforms, who sponsors the beer and hot wings, and which companies are spending big money on commercials, associations, or other advertisements. If there is a rumour that Nike inc. (NYSE: NKE) will take over the production of under armour team uniforms inc. (NYSE: UA), that could be worth investing in. This can also work in reverse: Coinbase Global Inc.’s (NASDAQ: COIN)’s bizarre QR code commercial during the 2022 Super Bowl did a company whose stock price was already under pressure with no favours.
Media Rights Agreements
Beer and clothing companies aren’t the only ones spending big money on association football. The rights to broadcast college and professional leagues are also hotly contested, with the best games frequently appearing on new stations.
For example, NBC, whose parent company is Comcast Corporation. (NASDAQ: CMCSA), has long possessed the rights to the NFL’s premier weekly matchup on Sunday Night Football. ESPN, owned by the Walt Disney Company. (NYSE: DIS), has the smaller Monday Night Football, and Amazon.com Inc. . (NASDAQ: AMZN) recently acquired Thursday Night Football for Amazon Prime Video. Fox Corporation (NASDAQ: FOX) and Paramount World (NASDAQ: PARA) show games all day on Sunday afternoons on Fox and CBS, respectively. Do you have all that downstairs? Good, since it will maybe change again next year.
Sponsorships are continuously altering, but so are the media rights deals that the NFL and individual college conferences sign with the networks to broadcast games. Keeping abreast of media rights deals are an excellent way to find public companies that profit from soccer.
Sports Betting / Fantasy Football
Like day traders, most sports bettors will lose more than they win. But those who find an edge can profit, either through betting straight on NFL or college games or playing for money through fantasy rugby ball.
There are three ways to play fantasy ball:
- Draft Leagues: League members recruit new teams each season.
- Dynasty or Guardian Leagues: Members keep the same group or certain players each year.
- Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS): Associates select novel teams every day the games held.
Fantasy leagues can often last for years, but DFS has recently gained popularity because it’s a one-day or one-week league anywhere new admissions can made as often as you like. But just like gambling, it takes luck and skill to win consistently.
Sports Betting / Fantasy Football
Sports betting companies often make more money than they lose when they offer odds. The punters’ goal to get the same action on both sides so that the book benefits from the rake, which the small percentage of cash retained on a winning bet. Some skilled punters can consistently beat these odds, but you need to hit more than 50% of the time just to break even.
For example, the distribution for a football game will look like this: Philadelphia Eagles -4 (-110) vs Motown Lions +4 (-110). The first sum is the spread or the number of points the preferred team wants to earn to win the bet. The other number is the rake or juice: the amount you must wager to win $100. In this case, to win $100, you must bet $110. The volume keeps your $110 if you lose and wages you $100 doubt you win. Due to this increased profit, sports bettors must victory at most minuscule 53% of the time to make a profit on their betting efforts.
Buy and sell football tickets.
NFL tickets are typically the most expensive of the major sports in the United States because each team only has eight home sports per season. Since there are so few games to attend, these tickets become a must-have, primarily if the unit competes for a championship. The waiting list for season tickets at major franchises often spans decades.
But thanks to ticket agents like StubHub and SeatGeek, fans can find arbitrage opportunities to buy and sell vouchers for a profit (as long as they earn enough to beat the fees these brokers charge). For example, an understated team with a large fan base may not have overpriced tickets if expectations are low. If you suspect that particular team is a dark contender, procuring low-priced tickets before the term and selling back two months later if the team starts 5-0 could be a lucrative attempt.
NFL All-Day/Collectible Cards
Sports cards are almost as childhood as the games themselves. Baseball cards tend to get the most care as the oldest of the major sports, and cards from over 100 years ago can still found in good disorder. In fact, a rare Honus Wagner card lately set a record, selling for $7.25 million.
Football cards don’t typically return those numbers. However, collectors still pay top dollar for rare and valuable NFL cards, especially for older players like Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. Also, Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA TopShot, launched its NFT football platform called NFL All Diurnal last year. While most of these NFTs remain only worth a few dollars, some rare ones have sold for over $40,000 (like this 10-mint Brett Favre NFT).
Soccer not an asset class like stocks or bonds, so investing in the sport needs to approached differently. Soccer is big business, but investing in real teams or leagues is not open to non-accredited investors. To invest in soccer, you need to find companies or products that benefit from the popularity of soccer.
Investment in soccer must left in the hands of those who understand how the leagues work. Knowing the plays and the staff can be helpful in sports betting or card collecting, but the business aspect is even more critical if looking for football-adjacent public companies.
The Football Fans: Sports talk radio stations packed with beacons of knowledge, but few people know the ins and outs of the leagues better than dedicated fans. If you’re a big fan with investing experience, you can probably think of more profitable avenues than traditional investors.
NFL All-Day/Collectible Cards
Risk-Tolerant Investors: Soccer fans are fickle, and investments like buying and selling game tickets can easily backfire. Investing in soccer sponsorships also requires different investment acumen, as the financial media doesn’t often cover soccer-specific investment ideas. You will need to tolerate uncertainty to use soccer as an asset class.
Alternative Investors: Sports betting and card collecting may not be traditional investments, but money can made if done correctly. Sports betting needs a system with specific limits regarding bet size and when to place a bet. And card gatherers need to have keen judgement and foresight on what players will and won’t succeed. If alternative asset classes are your thing, here are two avenues to explore.
Considerations for Sports Investors
You’ll find essential a risk appetite to exploit in soccer, or any sport, because of the fickle relationships that pervade the leagues. Here are some factors that can throw investment plans out of balance.
Labour agreements: The NFL closely lost a season in 2012 due to a lockout, and labour negotiations are always argumentative between owners and the players’ union. Always know the length of the NFL collective bargaining agreement and be on the lookout for any issues that could cause a potential work stoppage. If the games not played, no one makes money.
College vs Pro Football: College and professional football overlap somewhat in fan bases and business dealings, but they also influence different regions and don’t always share the same sponsors. Make sure your investment ideas consider whether college or professional football is the catalyst.
Litigation and injuries: Soccer is the most popular sport in the United States, but it is not without its detractors. It well known that playing American football puts a player at high risk for concussions, and repeated blows can have toxic effects on the human brain. Previous players have accused the NFL of misleading them regarding concussions, and the League of Denial documentary severely damaged the league’s reputation. The NFL often faces litigation from injured former players, and regulators have threatened to get involved on more than one occasion over trade practices and possible antitrust violations.
Frequent questions and answers
Is soccer a good investment?
Soccer can be a good investment, but only if you understand the game on the pitch and the business that happens off it. Like any investment, you will need a plan, capital, and parameters to buy and sell once. Whether it’s capitalizing in public companies that do occupational with soccer or developing card collecting or ticketing strategies, have a plan and a planned exit in case your investment turns against you.
Can you invest in sports equipment?
You cannot directly invest in NFL or college football teams like a regular investor, only through your sponsorship, sportsbook, card collecting or ticketing companies. European soccer clubs like Manchester United listed on US stock exchanges (look up MANU on the New York Stock Exchange), but no American soccer team offers valuable public shares.
Also Read: How Sports Affect Mental Health – 2024
