Today’s guest op-ed author is Richard Albert, director of capital investment, North America, for the U.K. government.
U.S. investors are leading players in one of the fastest-growing asset classes in the world economy, the global sports industry. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the U.K., where international investors, many of them from the U.S., are at the forefront of an unprecedented flow of private capital into the U.K. sports sector.
This has been especially game-changing in soccer, where the number of multi-club portfolios (MCOs) has grown by over 500% in the past decade. Three-quarters of clubs in the English Premier League—broadcast to over one billion homes across 188 countries, making it the most-watched sports league in the world—have MCO investment. And 60% of those feature U.S. investor participation. But this is not just about the Premier League. Clubs up and down the pyramid (England alone has 114 professional teams), as well as the other major team sports in the U.K. such as cricket and rugby, are increasingly attracting interest from leading U.S.-based private investors.
Sports enjoy unparalleled loyalty and deliver higher top-line growth and greater resilience to economic downturns than almost any other comparable asset class. It is a rapidly growing global market—including record numbers of viewing figures and passionate supporters of U.K.-based teams in the U.S.—that is accelerating interest among the new wave of institutional investors from the U.S. to deploy long-term strategic capital into the U.K. sports sector.
The bilateral value of this trend was clear at the recent OneGoal 2024, hosted by the U.K.’s Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and Rothschild & Co. Bringing over 200 global investors, advisors and key stakeholders from across the U.K. sports ecosystem to London, the second annual sports investment symposium demonstrated the attraction the U.K. sports economy has for leading private equity firms and specialist sports investment funds from the U.S. and around the world. During the event, the U.K.’s newly appointed Minister for Investment, Dame Poppy Gustafsson, relaunched DBT’s Women’s Sport Investment Accelerator scheme, which aims to make the U.K. the top global destination for women’s sports investment.
The event also showcased the three key investment themes that the U.K. government is focusing on to support the long-term financial sustainability of professional sports in the U.K.:
- Promoting opportunities to world-class investors who will bring the strategic capital, management expertise and global networks necessary to drive revenue diversification and long-term growth. As part of the creative industries, one of the priority verticals within the U.K.’s newly announced Industrial Strategy, the sports sector contributes nearly $71.4 billion in value to the U.K. economy.
- Supporting placemaking projects with capital investment in new and upgraded sports facilities as the centerpiece of mixed-use development schemes. These projects allow clubs to improve the fan experience and optimize returns on their most valuable assets through greater utilization, while serving as a foundation for broader community regeneration and prosperity. Minister for Investment Gustafsson committed to helping investors navigate the complexities of government and planning policy, smooth barriers to investment and unlock capital for these transformational projects.
- Actively supporting the continued growth and accessibility of women’s sports as it continues to professionalize, scale commercially and attract new sources of capital investment. The newly announced Women’s Sport Investment Accelerator will help address the distinct investment needs of women’s sports, tapping into the rapid growth of the sector, which is expected to be worth over $1.25 billion by the end of the year according to Deloitte, a 300% increase since 2021.
The U.K. government’s efforts to promote international private investment into sport began in earnest in 2022. As the sector emerged from the COVID pandemic, there were concerns regarding its financial fragility, and the impact that fragility could have on supporters, player development pathways, social cohesion and local economies if clubs became distressed assets. The government is committed to supporting investment into U.K. sports, ensuring this translates into tangible positive outcomes that span grassroots participation through to elite performance. In turn, this will stimulate the contribution the sports sector makes to economic growth.
At the same time, there is recognition of the unprecedented level of interest and flow of private capital investment into the global sports sector, and the evolution of the sources of that investment from traditional local benefactors to international institutional investors, including private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds, corporate multinationals, and purpose-built investment vehicles backed by pension funds, university endowments and insurance companies.
Most prominently, U.S.-based investors are increasingly attracted to opportunities in the U.K. sports sector, and soccer in particular, for three very compelling reasons: lower valuations compared to equivalent premium assets in the U.S. sports ecosystem, greater availability of investible assets across the various professional leagues (both men’s and women’s), and more headroom for growth, with much greater upside to leverage intellectual property and broadcast rights on a global basis.
As the birthplace of soccer, rugby, cricket, tennis and golf, the U.K. has a long history of pioneering in sports. And with some of the world’s most valuable sporting brands, most-followed teams and most iconic sports venues, the U.K. continues to punch above its weight on the world stage.
Richard Albert is a corporate development executive with over 25 years of experience in the private sector with major blue-chips, including American Express and Chevron, now serving in the public sector with the U.K. government. He is responsible for managing relationships with leading institutional investors to support deployment of private capital into sectors of strategic significance to the U.K. economy, including sports.\