The Institutional Shift: Why Family Offices are Treating Sports as a Core Asset Class

At a time when ultra-rich investors are pulling back from venture capital and speculative startups, professional sports and the broader sports ecosystem are emerging as one of the most resilient and attractive asset classes available to family offices.

Survey data from leading global banks shows that roughly half of family offices have either already invested in sports or are actively considering doing so. Team ownership, once treated as a status symbol, is now increasingly evaluated through the lens of long-term value creation, inflation protection, and strategic control. Major transactions over the past year — including multi-billion-dollar acquisitions of NBA and NFL franchises — underscore how competitive and institutionalized this market has become.

The chart above illustrates how investment interest is distributed across the sports ecosystem among family offices. Men’s major leagues dominate by a wide margin, attracting interest from 71% of respondents. This preference reflects the proven economics of top-tier leagues, which benefit from long-term media rights contracts, global fan bases, sponsorship growth, and scarcity value. Over the past three decades, leading franchises have delivered double-digit annual appreciation and, in many cases, outperformed public equity indices.

Beyond team ownership, family offices are increasingly diversifying across adjacent assets. Streaming technology and venues or real estate each attract interest from roughly a third of respondents, highlighting how investors are positioning sports as a multi-revenue platform rather than a single-asset bet. Media distribution, premium arenas, and mixed-use developments allow owners to capture upside from content, live experiences, and urban regeneration simultaneously.

This diversification strategy also explains growing interest in gaming, events, ticketing, and sports-related social clubs. By spreading capital across multiple layers of the ecosystem, families can hedge against cyclical risk while amplifying exposure to fan engagement and data-driven monetization. Sports assets are viewed as particularly effective inflation hedges, given their pricing power, contractual revenues, and ability to pass rising costs through to consumers.

What stands out, however, is where capital remains relatively scarce. Women’s sports and emerging leagues continue to lag in family office allocations. Fewer than one in five respondents express interest in women’s established leagues, and enthusiasm drops further for women’s emerging leagues and men’s minor leagues. Despite increasing media attention and cultural momentum, these segments are still perceived as longer-dated equity plays rather than immediate cash-flow generators.

That perception is beginning to shift, albeit slowly. A growing cohort of ultra-wealthy investors is making targeted bets on women’s sports, often explicitly framing them as generational opportunities rather than yield investments. Recent transactions in women’s basketball and football reflect a belief that today’s valuations will appear remarkably low in hindsight as audiences scale, sponsorship deepens, and professional infrastructure improves.

Another defining feature of this wave of investment is the desire for control. Family offices increasingly see themselves as owners, not passive shareholders. Many prefer majority stakes or governance rights that allow them to influence strategy, operations, and capital allocation. This mindset mirrors private equity disciplines, with rigorous diligence, bespoke financing structures, and long-term development plans — particularly around stadiums and training facilities.

Infrastructure has become central to the value-creation thesis. Privately financed arenas and mixed-use developments are replacing publicly subsidized models, allowing owners to control the full fan experience while unlocking new revenue streams from real estate, hospitality, and technology. In this context, sports ownership is as much about building platforms as it is about winning championships.

At a broader level, the rise of sports as a core asset class fits neatly into a larger portfolio shift among billionaire families. With fewer public companies available and increased volatility in traditional markets, patient capital is flowing into private assets where owners can exert influence and compound value over decades. Sports now sit alongside real estate, technology, energy, and consumer businesses as priority sectors for new investment.

For family offices, the appeal is not purely financial. Sports assets offer emotional resonance, multigenerational engagement, and community impact — qualities that yachts, planes, and other luxury assets cannot match. As investor sentiment increasingly suggests, the real risk is no longer investing in sports, but missing the opportunity to shape an asset class that is still evolving.

Sources & References

CNBC. (2025). How ultra-rich families invest in sports, from major leagues to social clubs. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/12/family-offices-sports-team-investment-goldman-sachs.html 

Forbes. (2025). Billionaires’ New Playbook: More Ultra-Wealthy Investing In Sports Than Traditional Luxuries, Report Suggests. https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinacastellanos/2025/11/05/billionaires-new-playbook-more-ultra-wealthy-investing-in-sports-than-traditional-luxuries-report-suggests/ 

Insider Sport. (2025). Ultra-wealthy families turn sport into a core asset class, report finds. https://insidersport.com/2025/11/11/features-billionaire-families-sport-asset-class-jp-morgan-2025/ 

JP Morgan. (2025). Principal Discussions, Conversations with the World`s Wealthiest Families. https://assets.jpmprivatebank.com/content/dam/jpm-pb-aem/global/en/documents/other/2025-principal-discussions-report.pdf