In 2019, Major League Baseball (MLB) became the first American professional sports league to permit private equity investment directly into its teams. This initial step was a harbinger of today’s robust private equity sports investment landscape. Today, every major American professional sports league—MLB, the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Soccer (MLS)—allows private equity firms to invest directly in their teams.
Since 2014, average franchise values across the major U.S. sports leagues have delivered cumulative total returns that have outpaced the S&P 500. Beyond headline growth, the asset class appeals to investors because professional teams and their related businesses share many of the positive attributes of alter native investments, offering resilience and meaningful diversification benefits within a broader portfolio. These opportunities have drawn private equity into new sports investments beyond the traditional top American professional leagues, including overseas, in new domestic professional leagues, and in collegiate athletics.
Initial Investments in the United States
In 2019, MLB revised its governing rules to allow institutional investors, including private equity sponsors, to acquire minority interests in MLB teams, but with restrictions: individual teams can sell up to 30 percent of their equity, while a single firm can acquire no more than 15 percent of a team. In the following years, the NBA, NHL, and MLS quickly opened their doors to private equity minority investments with similar restrictions. The NFL, for a time the sole holdout among major American professional sports leagues, ultimately allowed private equity investment in 2024 when NFL owners voted to allow certain pre-approved funds to acquire stakes in NFL teams, capping ownership at 10 percent of a team and requiring such ownership to be passive, with firms providing capital without interfering in team operations.
With all five major leagues open to private equity investment, significant capital quickly followed. Today, a substantial number of franchises in each league have private equity minority investors, and the number of private equity-partnered teams constantly grows. Private equity investors are largely motivated by a core set of benefits associated with owning professional sports teams. To begin with, the teams have strong recurring revenue from long-term agreements for lucrative TV rights, corporate sponsorships, and stadium revenues. In addition, the financial performances of the teams and leagues are largely uncorrelated to that of the larger economy. Moreover, limited investment opportunities exist in the space, driving scarcity and desirability. Team owners, meanwhile, benefit from the short-term liquidity and strategic input and partnership provided by sophisticated private equity minority investors.
Overseas Sports, Nascent Leagues, Collegiate Athletics
Private equity’s interest in sports investment goes well beyond teams in the top American leagues. Prior to their entrance into the American sports market, private equity sponsors cut their teeth investing in European sports, availing themselves of the more laissez-faire team ownership rules in Europe beginning in the 2000s. As in the United States, private equity investment in European sports continues to grow at a breakneck pace. Private equity sponsors actively invest across Europe in a variety of well-established sports leagues and teams, from Formula One to the Premier League.
Emerging professional sports also represent an attractive opportunity for private equity sponsors. In recent years, private equity sponsors have taken stakes in a variety of teams and leagues across the globe, including in mixed martial arts via the Professional Fighters League, cricket via the Indian Premier League, sailing via SailGP, volleyball via League One Volleyball, lacrosse via the Premier Lacrosse League, pickleball via Major League Pickleball, hockey via the Professional Women’s Hockey League, padel via Pro Padel, and many more.
Last year saw the most notable development in American sports investing since the NFL’s authorization of sales of minority stakes in teams to pre-approved funds. In December 2025, the University of Utah announced the first partnership between a college sports program and a private equity firm. Through an agreement with New York-based Otro Capital, the university created Utah Brands & Entertainment LLC, a for-profit company majority-owned by the University of Utah Foundation. The deal will inject over $500 million into Utah’s athletic programs for NIL and operations, making Utah the first NCAA school to accept private equity investment in its athletics by partnering to manage revenue streams like ticketing, sponsorships, and concessions for potential long-term growth.
Utah seems unlikely to be the last school to enter into this kind of arrangement. Florida State University previously engaged in discussions with a blue-chip private equity fund about a potential investment into the school’s athletics department. Meanwhile, universities are not the only collegiate entities exploring such investments. The Big 12 Conference and the Big Ten Conference each have had similar conversations with private investors.
As private equity continues to explore investment opportunities across the sports landscape—from traditional top American and European leagues, to emerging sports, to American collegiate sports—there is little doubt that the space is poised for further explosive growth.
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