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Sports have become more than just a passion investment of the ultra-rich and are now a growing part of their portfolio
[NEW YORK] JPMorgan Chase & Co’s super-rich clients are bolstering their investments in sports teams as rising values increasingly attract capital from institutional firms, and they mature as an asset class.
Some 20 per cent of 111 billionaire families currently served by the Wall Street giant now own controlling stakes in sports teams, up from just 6 per cent three years ago, JPMorgan said in a new report released this week.
About a third of the families surveyed this year – who have a combined net worth of more than US$500 billion – invested more broadly in sports teams or stadiums, making it their top specialty asset class ahead of art and cars, the bank said in its 2025 Principal Discussions Report.
Sports have “become more than just a passion investment”, said Andy Cohen, the executive chairman of JPMorgan’s global private bank, in an interview. “It’s become a real part of the portfolio.”
Some of the world’s richest families are joining multi-billion-dollar asset managers such as Apollo Global Management and Ares Management in pushing deeper into sports as team values boom, partly due to robust television ratings producing attractive revenue streams.
Owners of National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) teams in the United States have also opened up more to private equity firms in recent years, helping to drive up valuations.
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Last month, NBA owners signed off on American businessman Mark Walter’s US$10 billion purchase of the Los Angeles Lakers, crushing the US$6.1 billion benchmark for a professional basketball team set just this March by the Boston Celtics.
Walter is the chief executive officer of financial services firm Guggenheim Partners, which has more than US$345 billion in assets under management. He is also the CEO and co-chairman of TWG Global, a multinational holding company.
The NFL’s New York Giants sold a 10 per cent stake in October to Julia Koch and the Koch family at a valuation of US$10.3 billion, setting a new high watermark in sports team values.
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According to Forbes, Koch and her family have a net worth of US$81.2 billion.
“The US is obviously the dominant market for sports investments. The ubiquity of opportunities is growing,” said Cohen, who also leads JPMorgan’s 23 Wall team, which caters to the ultra-wealthy and authored the report.
Wealthy individuals buying sports teams outside the US include ammunition tycoon Michal Strnad, who acquired a majority stake in Czech football club Viktoria Plzen for an undisclosed amount earlier this year.
Viktoria Plzen are one of the most successful teams from the Czech Republic and are six-time winners of the country’s top football league.
Strnad is the owner and chairman of Czechoslovak Group, a company that produces military equipment. The Prague-based firm is also active in transport industries as a builder of air traffic control systems and off-road vehicles. Czechoslovak Group had revenue of four billion euros (S$6 billion) in 2024.
UK industrialist Jim Ratcliffe took control of Manchester United’s football operations last year after spending about US$1.5 billion to buy roughly a third of the 20-time English league champions, adding to a sports empire that already includes several French and Swiss football clubs.
Ratcliffe is the chairman and CEO of the Ineos chemicals group, which he founded in 1998.
Both Strnad and Ratcliffe have a combined net worth of almost US$30 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The heads of billionaire families are also boosting their private markets activity as companies avoid going public for longer amid investors grappling with pinched liquidity and higher borrowing costs.
Nearly 70 per cent of principals that JPMorgan questioned in hour-long conversations said that they now prefer active roles in private investments, such as taking board seats, rising from 43 per cent three years ago. Most are still operating their original family business.
“They are doubling down (on private investments) and they are not dialing back,” explained Cohen. BLOOMBERG
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