🏗️ How to Strike Gold in Sports Private Equity
Some of the most durable gains in sport are being made behind the scenes.
⚒️ The New Sports Gold Rush
Mark Twain famously said: "When everyone is looking for gold, it is a good time to be in the pick and shovel business."
That principle still applies—only now, the gold is sport, and the new opportunities are being found in the infrastructure behind it.
In the 1800s, few miners got rich. But the suppliers—selling picks, tents, and pans—made millions. Samuel Brannan did not mine gold. He sold shovels—and became the first millionaire of the California Gold Rush.
Today, a similar logic is playing out in sport.
You do not need to own a team to participate in the upside of sport. You can invest in the tools, tech, and services that teams, leagues, and athletes cannot operate without.
This is the picks-and-shovels strategy:
→ Back the logistics firms that move the gear.
→ Invest in the data engines behind every broadcast.
→ Acquire the SaaS platforms running scheduling, ticketing, and content.
→ Own the backend, not the brand.
Just like Shopify in e-commerce or NVIDIA in AI, the upstream infrastructure powering sport can offer a compelling alternative to team ownership. Not necessarily better—but more scalable, durable, and often less exposed to volatility.
🏟️ From Passion Plays to Platform Plays
For decades, sports investing followed a familiar script: buy the team, hope it wins, then monetise fans through tickets, sponsors, and media rights.
But here is the issue: that model can be expensive, more volatile, and quite competitive. You are betting on player performance, coaching decisions, and season outcomes. If your star striker tears an ACL and you do not have a deep bench of talent, your investment takes the hit.
Now consider a different model: own the ecosystem instead of the scoreboard. Buy the B2B infrastructure behind the scenes—logistics, data, fan engagement, venue design, and operations. These companies grow with the industry, not with the league table.
That is the play Providence Equity Partners is making.
🔹 They acquired a controlling stake in Global Critical Logistics (GCL)—a specialised global logistics firm responsible for transporting staging, gear, and infrastructure for some of the world’s largest entertainment and sports tours. Think: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, international motorsport events, and global broadcasts. GCL is not a front-stage name—but it is the engine behind the show. Its revenues come from recurring, cross-event contracts that scale with the live events economy—not from ticket sales or team wins.
🔹 They also took a minority stake in Populous, the world’s largest sports architecture firm. Populous has designed over 3,000 sports venues and mega-event facilities—from Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to Olympic arenas. As more stadiums go digital, experiential, and mixed-use, owning a piece of the design and development firm means capturing upside from global infrastructure spend, not team performance.
These moves show how institutional capital can participate in the sports investment landscape without taking a bet on match outcomes. They may appear less glamorous, but these businesses are mission-critical to every team, league, and promoter.
→ Lower volatility. More cash flow.
→ Asset-light models, recurring contracts, global scale.
It is not about who wins the trophy. It is about who supplies the stadium, ships the gear, and designs the infrastructure.
It is not a passion play. It is a platform play—another way to build equity in the sports economy.
📈 Where Value Is Created
Recurring Revenue Models
Investors are increasingly backing SaaS tools, high-margin services, and scalable platforms that operate across leagues. Firms like Elysian Park Ventures, Sapphire Sport, Courtside Ventures, and Will Ventures are actively investing in B2B infrastructure—spanning athlete performance tools, data and analytics, digital fan engagement, and operational platforms.
These investors are not chasing highlight reels. They are supporting companies that make sport more efficient, measurable, and monetisable—often with tech stacks that apply across multiple sports or geographies. Examples range from GPS-based training analytics to scheduling and rights management systems used by governing bodies and federations.
Infrastructure Over Brands
Owning consumer-facing apps can be competitive and unpredictable. B2B data platforms and backend services, by contrast, tend to be more defensible.
Sportradar, for instance, delivers real-time data to sportsbooks and leagues. In March 2025, it acquired IMG Arena. The deal, structured with Sportradar being compensated for pre-existing liabilities, reflects sustained appetite for B2B sports data infrastructure.
These businesses are sticky. Data and operations platforms, once integrated into league workflows or betting systems, are difficult to displace—and increasingly valued for their scalability.
Build for Exit
Several companies have scaled efficiently and been acquired by strategic buyers:
TRACAB was acquired by Electronic Arts for its optical tracking technology, enhancing both in-game realism and live analytics. EA is betting on convergence between gameplay and live sport.
Bluemedia, which delivered signage and branding at Super Bowl LIX, was acquired by Wasserman. With more than 250 clients, it now supports global expansion for live event operations.
ASM Global, which manages hundreds of venues worldwide, was acquired by Legends in a $2.3 billion deal to consolidate venue operations and fan experience services.
Even more niche operators—like tunnel cam providers, drone logistics firms, or cloud-based ticketing engines—have demonstrated successful exits where product-market fit is strong and integration costs are low.
💡 Investor Entry & Risk Framework
How You Can Enter:
Back Infrastructure Startups: European sports tech is growing. Estimates suggest over €300 million in recent transactions, with more than 1,000 startups working on everything from logistics to scheduling.
Support Licensing & Rights Platforms: Target B2B data, broadcast APIs, or digital asset systems—especially in underserved or emerging markets.
Co-invest in Real Assets: Training centres, academies, or venues with layered IP and naming rights may offer steady long-term value.
Partner with Agencies: Agencies are expanding their verticals—buying up creative, analytics, and fan experience tools. There are increasing opportunities to co-invest or consolidate as these platforms scale.
Where the Risks Lie:
Some infrastructure models face many of the same issues as consumer ventures—unproven demand, client concentration, fragile margins, and unclear paths to exit.
High valuations, lack of product stickiness, or misalignment between owners and capital providers can derail even well-positioned firms.
And while infrastructure is often seen as defensive, it still depends on scale, execution, and technology relevance. Back-end is not risk-free.
Governance complexity, especially in federated sports bodies or cross-border ventures, can limit exit routes or slow growth.
🧠 The Berkida Take
Owning a team can bring visibility and long-term brand value. But for some investors, the less visible infrastructure plays offer a different route to scalable participation in the growth of global sport.
From logistics to content operations and venue design, a wide array of companies power the industry’s day-to-day operations—indifferent to the final score.
Private equity, venture capital, and holding companies are consolidating this space. The logic is clear: recurring revenue, cross-league utility, and IP that touches everything from fan experience to athlete optimisation.
For founders, it is a strong moment to build lean, high-utility tools that solve real operational pain points. For investors, it is another way to be part of sport’s expansion—by backing the systems that help it run.
📩 If you are building, acquiring, or allocating in this space—we want to hear from you. Let us talk.