How record-breaking broadcasting rights for major sports leagues are opening new investment avenues

The Premier League, NFL, NBA and MLB are seeing massive revenue growth, presenting a golden opportunity for investors – but it’s a long game with inherent risks

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Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles and Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs embrace after Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome in February, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 3:54pm, 17 Mar 2025Updated: 4:08pm, 17 Mar 2025

Recently, major sports leagues across the world have begun lucrative, record-breaking broadcasting deals. The English Premier League’s current cycle for domestic TV rights came in at £6.7 billion (HK$67.31 billion). The National Basketball Association (NBA) last year inked deals totalling US$76 billion – more than three times the previous package at US$24 billion – for the next 11 years.

The fact that broadcasters are paying top dollar shows how in demand sports content continues to be, and is a reflection of rising valuations across the board for sports teams and leagues. Standard Chartered Bank’s global head of wealth solutions, deposits and mortgages, and chief client officer Samir Subberwal links the two: “One of the reasons the National Football League has been growing at a tremendous pace – 16-17 per cent compound annual growth rate over the past 10 years – is the growth of media contract value,” he noted. The National Football League (NFL) signed its current media deals totalling US$110 billion across five contracts running from 2022 to 2033.

The English Premier League’s current cycle for domestic TV rights came in at £6.7 billion (HK$67.31 billion). Photo: Reuters

“NFL franchises benefit from a highly predictable revenue model, with most revenue streams [being] contractual, recurring or reoccurring in nature, underpinned by strong demand for NFL content,” Subberwal continued. “Ticket sales, merchandise and local sponsors are also crucial to the revenue of sports franchises, [but] having said that, media contract revenue is much more significant and more sticky compared to other revenue sources.”

Major League Baseball leads US sport in terms of revenue growth, with a combined US$7.66 billion in sponsorship revenue for 2024, while the 2025 NFL Super Bowl – which included a performance by rapper Kendrick Lamar – closed over US$800 million in ad revenue for that evening alone.

“[This is] a golden opportunity for private wealth today, as clients could not access these [franchises] in the past,” noted Raymond Ang, Standard Chartered Bank’s global head for private bank and affluent clients, and head of wealth and retail banking for Greater China and North Asia. “As team valuations continue to rise, fewer individuals have enough wealth to purchase a team. The NFL’s recent amendment of certain rules to keep sales processes competitive opens up the opportunity for [investor access].” Most notably, the NFL began allowing private equity involvement in August 2024.

According to Subberwal, banks like Standard Chartered prefer managers taking a more diversified approach by investing across the capital structure in both debt and equity, including senior and junior debt, preferred equity and even minority equity stakes in these sports teams.