Mark Cuban knows how to make money from sports. Lots of money. Case in point:
In January of 2000, he bought the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million. Then, in 2023, he sold off a majority stake in this NBA franchise for $3.5 billion.
In other words, he made literally billions of dollars in profits — and he still held onto a big stake in the team.
Now he’s back at it, with a fund to invest in pro sports teams.
Today, I’ll tell you about his fund — and show you a way to get in on the action.
Sports: A New Asset Class
Cuban’s fund is called Harbinger Sports Partners.
The $750 million fund will acquire stakes in major U.S. pro sports franchises, including teams from the NBA, NFL, and MLB.
Each stake is expected to cost $50 million to $100 million.
The reason he set up the fund is simple. As valuations for sports teams soar, and as teams look for new capital, the pro leagues have opened the door to private equity investors.
Joining Cuban are two veteran sports executives — Rashaun Williams, a limited partner in the Atlanta Falcons, and Steve Cannon, former CEO of AMB Sports and Entertainment, the parent company of the Atlanta Falcons.
As Williams said in a statement about making investments in pro sports, “The professional sports sector is maturing into an institutional-quality asset class.”
The fund will aim to sell the stakes it acquires within ten years. That’s when investors will get their money back, plus all their potential profits.
Want in?
We Need an Alternative
We sure do.
Unfortunately, such funds cater to institutional investors or ultra-high-net-worth individuals — the kind of investors who can write checks for $1 million, $10 million, or more.
But recently, a new option has sprung up. It’s an alternative to Mark Cuban’s fund — and an alternative to stocks and bonds, too.
You see, as I write about from time to time (for example, here and here), the rich invest differently.
They don’t have typical 60/40 portfolios. And this difference might explain why they keep getting richer. According to the Motley Fool, the rich mainly invest in “alternative assets.”
These alternatives include private startups and private real estate deals — the kind we focus on here at Crowdability.
But they also include fine art, fine wine, vintage sports cars — and now, pro athletes…
Investing in Athletes
Recently, businesses have emerged that enable investors like us to invest in some of the world’s most promising athletes. Minimums can be as low as $50 or so.
One of them is called Finlete.
On this Comcast-NBC backed platform, you can invest in promising young athletes — and hit a financial homerun if they become successful.
Finlete aims to discover stars before they get big. When it finds one, it offers them a lump-sum (say, $1 million) in exchange for a percentage of their future earnings.
For example, let’s say you invest in an up-and-coming baseball player. If he signs an average three-year MLB contract, a $100 investment would turn into about $270 — good for a 270% return.
But depending on who you invest in, the returns could potentially be far higher. To show you what I mean, let’s look at one of Finlete’s current athletes.
#6 Prospect: Leonardo Bernal
According to FanGraphs, Leonardo Bernal is the St. Louis Cardinals' #6 prospect.
The 20-year-old catcher from Panama City is 6’0”, 245 pounds. Here are his career stats:
The minimum investment you can make in Bernal is $300. How much could that turn into?
To get a sense, Finlete offers a simulator so you can play around with the inputs. For example, if Bernal turns into an All-Star catcher like Yadier Molina, every $1,000 you invest in Bernal could potentially turn into $19,452.
In other words, 20x your money by investing in an athlete.
Just Keep in Mind…
But please keep something in mind:
Investing in pro athletes is fun, and it might be lucrative — but it’s risky. After all, most athletes won’t become all-stars. So don’t invest more than you can afford to lose.
But if you love sports — and you want to invest like Mark Cuban — Finlete could be a great place to start your search.
PS: One of our favorite investment strategies is to “follow” legends like Mark Cuban into their next big thing. But one person today is more legendary than anyone else: Elon Musk.
- His first company, Zip2, made investors 132,042% in 4 years.
- PayPal made its earliest backers 9,515% in under 4 years.
- And Tesla delivered gains of 1,210,000% over 2 decades.
But his next company might become the most successful of all: SpaceX. And now I’m revealing how to get exposure to it.
In this video presentation, I’m giving away the ticker symbol, for free, that lets you grab exposure to SpaceX — before it IPOs.
You can do it from your brokerage account for about $50.
But I need to warn you: this video won’t be available for much longer. It’s going offline on June 7th. That’s this Saturday.
So if you’d like to learn how to get exposure to Elon’s next big thing — before it goes public — click here now »
Please note: Crowdability has no relationship with any of the startups or investment platforms we write about. We're an independent provider of education and research on startups and alternative investments.
Best Regards,
Founder
Crowdability.com
