News & Views

Investment in sport - The trends reshaping the UK market

As the Premier League continues to dominate national headlines and valuations, a quieter revolution is taking place elsewhere in UK sport. Across cricket, rugby, lower-league football, national governing bodies, and emerging new formats, a new investor ecosystem is emerging. This new investor ecosystem is targeting under-leveraged rights and sports, distressed assets, and commercial innovation in traditionally overlooked spaces.

While these opportunities come with risk and complexity, they also offer clubs, federations, and investors a unique window to build value in ways that reflect modern sport’s economic and social realities.

Outside of Tier 1 properties like Formula One and the Premier League, rights holders across the industry are faced with the same challenge - how to reinvent their businesses against the backdrop of flatlining or falling media revenue as the broadcast and satellite businesses contract in the ongoing consumer migration to streaming video platforms.

Here, we explore three recent UK deal examples, offer our thoughts on what’s driving the UK market, and comment upon the investment trends likely to shape the market over the next 12–24 months.

Three deals that reflect the new landscape

Deal 1 - The Hundred, ECB - Franchise sales

In a landmark shift for UK sport, the ECB began selling 49% stakes in The Hundred franchises, a 100-ball cricket competition. This created a new model of part-privatised ownership that blends league control with investor capital.

London Spirit attracted a £145m valuation through the ‘Tech Titans’ consortium, including global media and tech investors and other franchises, including Oval Invincibles, Birmingham Phoenix, and Manchester Originals, secured deals from high-profile IPL owners and US sports investors.

It is becoming clearer that in structurally conservative sports, if rightsholders can ring-fence assets with clean commercial rights and defined fan bases, they are investible. This deal structure could become a blueprint for other sports federations looking to diversify revenue streams and create pathways for new investment into their sports.

Deal 2 - Wasps and London Irish - Distressed asset revivals

After falling into administration, these two storied rugby union brands became the subject of investor interest - not for their balance sheets, but for their legacy and latent brand value.

In 2025, a group acquired Wasps' IP and stadium rights with the aim of relaunching the club from the lower tiers. It is a timely reminder that investor opportunity often lies in reconstruction, not acquisition - particularly in sports like rugby where financial models remain volatile.

Deal 3 - Professional Triathlon Organisation ("PTO")

PTO is a venture and a high-net-worth (HNW) funded startup aiming to take advantage of the fragmentation of the triathlon industry to build a new season long format with a focus on new fan acquisition and development, athlete engagement and digital focus.

Learning from sports like cycling, PTO have built a model that better rewards athletes, making it easier to persuade top level triathletes to join.

PTO aims to both build an elite level year-long season-based events calendar to build a brand around, and a mass participation business after an attempt to buy the Ironman Group from Wanda in 2020 did not materalise.

Three trends that are driving the UK market

Trend 1 - A move away from 'trophy asset' model into group ownership

Top-tier sports clubs have become near-impossible to acquire, with valuations often disconnected from financial reality. Investors are now looking at:

•      Mid-table Championship or League One clubs.
•      Women's teams with media potential.
•      Under-commercialised national governing bodies ('NGBs').
•      New ventures tied to stadiums, streaming or youth development.

Simultaneously, we are seeing the rapid emergence of multi-club ownership ('MCO') structures and multi-sport holding companies, where investors aggregate diverse sports assets under a single investment platform. These structures enable:

•      Cost synergies across operations, commercial and back-office functions.
•      Cross-border brand building.
•      Talent pipeline control (especially in football).
•      Diversification of sporting and financial risk.

However, MCO structures carry regulatory, liquidity, and legal complexity, for example:

• UEFA and FIFA rules limit ownership stakes in multiple clubs competing in the same competition.
• The Crystal Palace / Eagle Football (John Textor) case has demonstrated the pressure owners face to divest overlapping assets or restructure ownership to remain compliant with competition rules.
• Capital requirements are significant.  Each asset - particularly in early-stage or loss-making markets - must be sufficiently funded and both buyers and sellers need to be aware of the financial challenges ahead.

 The role of lawyers here is critical to advise on scenarios such as:

•      Structuring investment vehicles across jurisdictions and sports.
•      Avoiding beneficial ownership conflicts.
•      Managing risk via inter-company agreements, firewall provisions, and fund ring-fencing.
•      Supporting the club to obtain regulatory approval from regulators, league and governing bodies, and federations.

Trend 2 - The professionalisation of Tier 2 assets, with holding structures in mind

Clubs and governing bodies are increasingly adopting more corporate and investment-friendly frameworks:

•      Dedicated commercial subsidiaries.
•      Shareholder agreements with minority protections.
•      Defined IP and media rights packages.
•      Flexible equity models for external capital.

The trend is being reflected in multi-sport platforms, where a single vehicle houses properties in different sports (e.g. football, cricket, cycling, or esports), enabling thematic investor strategies (such as talent development, or geography).

For these models to succeed, professionalism must go beyond front of house.

Liquidity planning is essential.  Many of these ventures involve non-cashflow-positive entities for several years.

Governance coherence is key. Multi-sport models often face internal tension between strategic direction, rights management and capital allocation across codes.

IP ownership and licensing across teams, leagues, and digital platforms must be clarified at inception to avoid future disputes.

Whether you're a private equity fund exploring roll-ups or a family office building a multi-sport legacy platform, your legal and financial structuring must be resilient from day one.

Trend 3 - Media, IP and data structures

Media rights outside of Tier 1 are under significant strain, meaning predictable media revenues which drove large scale private equity investments are now no longer guaranteed due to the ongoing disruption of the broader media business.

With clubs seeking to monetise digital content and fan engagement as an alternative, legal clarity is needed around:

•      Ownership of digital content and archives.
•      Third-party platform licensing.
•      GDPR compliance and first-party fan data usage.

Where we expect deal flow to accelerate

• Women’s sport – especially WSL and associated verticals (broadcast, kit, events).
• Olympic sport carve-outs – subsidised NGBs building commercial arms.
• Relaunch or turnaround opportunities – especially in more regional sports.
• Emerging formats - new sports or mixed genres focused on a YouTube first play.
• Stadium and mixed-use developments – increasingly viewed as long-term anchor investments,
• Multi-club or multi-sport holding vehicles – with focus on aggregation and rights centralisation.

Some final thoughts

UK sport is entering a phase of consolidation, diversification, and innovation. For Tier 2 rights holders, this is the time to professionalise structures, package assets clearly, and build the foundations for external investment.

For investors, success in this space will depend not just on capital, but on governance discipline, regulatory foresight, and patient ambition.

At O’Connors, we work across the investment lifecycle - from club-side advisory to investor structuring and deal execution. If you’re exploring M&A, capital raising, asset disposals, or multi-sport ventures, we can help you build intelligently for the future of sport.

For further information, please email our sport sector lead, Phil Bowers or call 0151 906 1000.