The $4 Billion Illusion: Sports is Getting Financialized (and Where Alpha Still Exists)

The quiet rise of passive capital in sports and the high-conviction opportunities it's ignoring.

The sports capital floodgates are OPEN.

In the past few weeks, we’ve seen a surge of announcements that would’ve felt unthinkable just a few years ago.

Here’s what’s hit the wire:

• Mark Cuban unveiled a $750 million sports fund.

• Dave Checketts, former MSG Sports CEO, announced a $1.2 billion fund for sports-related investments (podcast here)

• Ryan Smith, owner of the Utah Jazz, launched a $1 billion fund targeting sports and entertainment.

• TPG (a $250B+ private equity giant) launched a dedicated sports investment vehicle alongside Rory McIlroy.

Billions of dollars. Blue-chip names.

But two main questions:

1. Is this new capital actually innovating sports?

2. Or is it just the same recycled strategy in a shinier wrapper?

The real opportunity?
…it's hiding where no one’s looking (and it’s not passive capital in legacy teams)

Let’s break it down 👇

The Playbook

All of these new funds will mainly look like this: