ByMark J. Burns
, Contributor.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 15: Caitlin Clark poses with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert after … [+]
Earlier this year, I asked numerous bankers, investors and advisors which areas of the sports business industry they’re buying, selling and holding in 2025. Here’s a breakdown of what industry experts are keeping a watchful eye on throughout the calendar year.
Vasu Kulkarni, Partner of Courtside Ventures, said he’d ‘buy’ creator-driven emerging sports leagues, which have a built-in audience from day one, “thereby greatly accelerating the growth of the business.” For example, Courtside is an investor in Baller League, an emerging six-on-six soccer league distributed through streaming platforms. In recent years, non-traditional sports and entertainment media entities, such as Jomboy Media, Bleacher Report and Barstool Sports, have found success leveraging their individual talent through novel competitions and sporting formats.
Similarly, Greg Bettinelli, partner of The Chernin Group, is bullish on creator and influencer-driven sports and intellectual property. He cited YouTube sensation Mr. Beast as well as professional golfer Bryson DeChambeau, who has prioritized the media platform over the past 18-plus months.
“We see lots of opportunities for novel formats in beloved sports like basketball, golf and soccer,” Bettinelli told me.
Several investors like Jay Adya, managing partner of Elysian Park Ventures, and Bettinelli said youth sports is also a ‘buy’, “particularly businesses that can drive participation across early youth sport,” per Adya. His global investment group currently backs companies like Snap! Mobile, a software platform that supports fundraising for sports communities, and Breakaway Data, a sports analytics firm.
Bettinelli is a supporter of team sports, specifically baseball, softball, flag football, volleyball, lacrosse and cheer and dance. In other words, youth sports with “opportunities for differentiated and unique experiences that families will enjoy and remember.”
“Youth sports will grow as athletes, parents and coaches access and use technology to enable real-time data access, personalized training recommendations and more sophisticated performance tracking,” added Wayne Kimmel, managing partner at SeventySix Capital.
Meanwhile, Brian Kopp, Partner at Ryan Sports Ventures, is bullish on U.S. soccer fandom. From Lionel Messi’s impact on MLS and the NWSL’s increased momentum toward a 16-team league in 2026, Kopp said “we’re finally seeing real market traction and fandom” and “see potential in all aspects of the beautiful game” ahead of the 2026 North American-based World Cup.
“Anything to do with the 2026 World Cup in the United States” is a ‘buy’, remarked Bettinelli of The Chernin Group. The North American-based tournament, which will feature 48 teams, marks the first time that the event’s been hosted across three countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Several bankers and investors, like Kopp and Kimmel, also called out women’s sports — where advertisers spent $244 million in 2024, a 139% increase year-over-year — as a continuing growth opportunity. Still, its ceiling is still anyone’s guess. Executives cited the NWSL along with the WNBA as key areas, in addition to women’s college basketball and volleyball. In 2025, global revenue for women’s sports is projected to reach $2.35 billion, per a new report from consulting and management firm Deloitte.
Sal Galatioto, President of Galatioto Sports Partners, said he’d ‘hold’ college sports “until the entire landscape has more certainty.” The Chernin Group’s Bettinelli said men’s college sports is also a ‘neutral’ for him. “Everyone agrees college football is under monetized and everyone is paying lots of attention, but the next few years will likely be chaotic,” he said. “And the players getting paid what they deserve will make building actual businesses difficult.”
Formula One is also a ‘hold’ for him. “What will they do to get more fans engaged for the long-term?” said Bettinelli, who commented on the enterprise’s “incredible job introducing the sport to Americans,” including the rise of Netflix’s all-access F1 show Drive to Survive during the coronavirus pandemic.
Courtside’s Kulkarni views sports betting companies as a ‘hold’, too. At the end of 2024, “an unprecedented number of favorites won games and produced massive losses for sports books,” he said. “Expect more states in the U.S. to legalize sports betting in 2025 as they look for new revenue streams with tax cuts coming from the incoming administration.”
Similarly, Kopp of Ryan Sports Ventures is following the sports gambling industry closely as more states regulate the practice. There’s around 40 states and D.C. that have legalized sports betting. Said Kopp, “There is a potential dark side of allowing an addictive and sometimes destructive behavior to be so easily accessible. The growth will continue, but I’m afraid we are just starting to see some of the downside.”
He is also keeping a watchful eye on “new twists on existing sports,” or in other words, multiple new leagues that have modified traditional sports such as TGL in golf and Unrivaled in women’s basketball. The former outpaced last year’s television windows at 513,000 average viewers during its inaugural regular season, according to Sports Media Watch, while the latter averaged 186,000 viewers ahead of its final week of the regular season. “These new leagues are off to strong starts, but it is unclear if their novelty will eventually wear off,” Kopp said.
Courtside’s Kulkarni, who founded the New York City-based sports data analytics company Krossover and sold it in 2017 to then Dallas-based Blue Star Sports, is bearish on traditional cable sports broadcasting networks that “continue to feel the heat from streaming platforms that are increasingly looking to acquire media rights in order to grow their own subscriber bases.”
In addition, there were multiple sports bankers and investors, including Adya of Elysian Park Ventures, who said they are selling private equity’s investment in college sports this year. Adya stated that it “feels like college sports has many foundational issues to sort out before private equity becomes a meaningful driver.” That includes further guardrails around the transfer portal and overall governance around the collegiate ecosystem, he said.
In January, Sportico reported that the Big Ten was taking preliminary bids from private equity firms, while a year ago, the Big 12 reportedly started discussions with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, which would inject $800 million to $1 billion for a 15% to 20% stake in the athletics conference.
Meanwhile, Ryan Sports Ventures’ Kopp is less optimistic about legacy sports ticketing platforms, such as Ticketmaster and Paciolan. He said the ticketing experience isn’t user friendly, with the legacy systems being “cumbersome” and “difficult to share.” Kopp said, “Emerging platforms will hopefully push this part of the market to modernize to meet fan expectations.”
The Chernin Group’s Bettinelli said he’s shorting professional sports teams being dependent on regional media rights — “this money is never coming back,” he said — and tier two professional fighting leagues.
“While unique formats might grab short-term attention, sustainability and long-term monetization for lower-tier and niche fighting sports remain questionable,” said Bettinelli, adding that he’s bearish on European football clubs outside of the United Kingdom.
“The Premier League is already the Super League and a natural magnet for global and American fandom,” he said.
