What do professional athletes do when their playing careers come to an end? How do they spend their time — and keep earning money?
Many athletes also become investors, and few go as far as building up personal investment firms. Magic Johnson was one of the first professional athletes to create his investment fund when he partnered with Canyon Capital in 1998 to fund Canyon-Johnson.
Due to sports’ commercial nature and popularity, during their playing career, athletes usually interact with hundreds of people from the media, legal, public relations, sponsors, marketing, etc. However, their financials and investments usually have to be managed independently.
Depending on their earning level, athletes may choose to establish funds, partner, or hire personal wealth management teams to manage and deploy their capital.
From Lionel Messi’s Play Time Sports-Tech fund and Serena Williams’ Serena Ventures firm to the full portfolios of superstars like Kevin Durant, Lewis Hamilton, LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal, and Alex Rodriguez, there’s no shortage of sports figures involved in PE and VC investments.
But not many athletes have the resources, time, or financial literacy to jump into the investing world so aggressively and actively.
As a result, firms within the VC and PE space have made efforts to involve athletes in their group of investors and partners to help them become better investors, teach them how to evaluate deals, meet the right people, and let them find the funds, franchises, and other investments that suit their needs, interests, and budget.
For this week’s report, we collaborated with Patricof Co., SeventySix Capital, and Pau Gasol Enterprises to provide the best insights on the rise of the athlete investor.
Want to learn more? Check out the athlete-investor report here.
ICYMI: Two weeks ago, we published a Report on the new professional cricket league in the U.S. You can access that report and our entire catalog of research at Pro HQ.
