Q2: Sports Business Observations

The biggest trends, ideas, and predictions I'm thinking about halfway through 2026.

Jul 23, 2026

Sports are changing faster than at any point in history.

Private equity is pouring in.
Media continues to fragment.
AI is rewriting entire business models.
New leagues are launching every month.
Youth sports is becoming increasingly expensive.

We’re only halfway through the year, but I wanted to step back from the headlines and share a few observations on where I think the industry is headed.

Let’s Dive In 👇

Technology Doesn’t Always Mean Better

While I mostly have positive things to say about the 2026 FIFA World Cup…

I think the VAR review system is a negative for the game.

While we all want sports to be as fair as possible and without human bias…

Viewing things in ultra slow motion and having the chance to reverse things that can be subjective isn’t a good experience in my opinion.

*It’s also why I don’t think using robot referees to replace humans would work in most sports.

Pair this with all the money that sits in betting and prediction markets, and it can lead to conflicts of interest (and potentially shady doings).

The Conor McGregor incident at the UFC is another example.

Say what you want about whether or not he was hurt leading into the match, but either way, too much money was at stake to not let him fight.

Affordability Will Be a Major Talking Point

I think we’re entering an era where pricing will be a hotter topic.

Sports across the board are becoming something of a luxury (especially in America).

expensive to go to games as a fan
pricey to put your kid(s) through youth sports

If sports become a place only for the ultra-wealthy and corporations who buy at bulk, they will be at risk of losing their “soul”.

When looking downstream at youth sports, I believe brands and even the leagues/teams they funnel into need to start underwriting more of it.

Capital Thoughts & Experiments

While sports-focused investment vehicles have really only been in the industry for the last decade or so…

It still blows my mind that many of the largest companies in and around the space don’t have sports-focused funds/groups on their cap tables from the early days.

I also think some groups that don’t traditionally do early-stage direct deals are going to get burned in sports.

Interesting to see Saudi groups in Sports/Entertainment

Many family offices are now trying to invest directly in earlier-stage sports deals instead of investing through dedicated vehicles, and they’re likely to get burned.

Anyways…

All of this signals to me that the industry is still in its early innings (pun intended). It does feel a little bit like a gold rush at times.

Fragmentation is Still a Core Issue

When we first started Profluence, absolutely nobody was doing what we built.

Now there are a few people (I wouldn’t even call them companies) doing some similar things.

That’s obviously good validation, as it shows that market demand is there, but it also highlights a critical problem in the industry…which is that instead of rallying behind one group or company, everyone wants their own little slice.

Let me give you some more examples:

Instead of everyone getting behind one women’s volleyball league, three popped up instantly
Instead of rallying behind TopGolf, think how many similar concepts and even mom & pop duplicates showed up
Instead of one youth sports management app, you have four major ones doing basically the exact same things

This is nothing new to sports though…

The NBA, NHL, and basically every serious sports company have faced duplicates early in their journeys as these groups aim to replicate and have their own little slice of the market.

Until this starts to be resolved (I’m doubtful it will be anytime soon), M&A outcomes in the space will remain underwhelming compared to the tech space.

i.e., imagine if GameChangers, TeamSnap, Stack Sports, etc. were all one entity; now that would be a multi-billion-dollar company with real growth ahead of it… but instead they’re all at 10-20% market share

AI is Going to Create a lot of Parity

I’ve been researching, experimenting, and talking with folks in the AI x Sports space for a few years now.

And my conclusion is that AI is likely the best adjacent invention to ever happen to sports.

I have a few different thoughts on why:

On one hand, it will increase the value of live experiences, and therefore sports.
On the other hand, it has the potential to eat up a lot of the solutions that exist in the space and consolidate it into far fewer. And that’s likely better for everyone, as I explained in the previous section.

AI will create some mayhem in the near term…job loss, education gaps, rogue uses of the technology like fake highlight tapes, and tons of new solutions flooding the market.

But in the long run, AI will not only shine a brighter light on why sports can’t be replaced, but also provide the tech solutions the industry needs (and consolidate more of them).

Need any more proof of this?

Two of the better tech/AI investors just bought into sports teams:

Josh Kushner - SF Giants
Vinod Khosla - Seattle Seahawks

And this leads to my next point…

Money is Set to Flow Downstream

So much money is flowing right now to the top of sports and particularly from groups that haven’t played in the sports arena that much:

Blackstone - with a $500B credit arm
Apollo - with a multi-billion dollar vehicle
PIF, EQT, Ares, KKR, Bain, Sixth Street, etc

A lot of this is at the team, media rights, and sometimes league level.

*Remember, most of the teams have been owned by the same families for many years.

This combination will create professionalization as the orgs will be run much better as PE groups optimize them across both expenses and revenue.

Professionalization will create SO many opportunities to build and sell solutions in the space… which also creates more buyers for these companies.

The next natural flow of capital in sports is downstream.

How long it takes? I’m still waiting to see.

Closing Out

All in all…

Sports are at one of the most incredible times in history, and so much will play out over the next decade.

Look at how much change has happened in just the past few years.

I’m excited to be building daily in this industry, and I hope you feel the same excitement I do…

Not only is there massive financial potential, but what we do will also have a huge impact on the world going forward.

- Onwards & upwards,

Andrew Petcash

New Profluence Website

We’ve been grinding hard behind the scenes at Profluence…

Check Out Our New Website

Community: continues to grow and is a major focus, as the sports industry needs a central place (especially as LinkedIn gets increasingly noisy).

Advisory/Consulting: We’ve always had an overflow of demand on the advisory side but never marketed it - after working with some of the industry’s best companies, we’ve got the process nailed down on what we do best.

Capital: We brought on Dustin Drees (give him a follow) to run our Capital arm.