How To Invest in Your Favorite Sports Team

You could hand over your money to a professional, and let him or her build you an investment portfolio to forget about. Or you could invest in some businesses and chains that you're familiar with, or that someone advised you to invest in—but frankly, that's not particularly interesting to most people. Not knowing the financial market can put many people off of investing, but this shouldn't be the case. If you want a more direct role in your finances, a real connection to the objects of your investments, you'll probably want to invest in things you know, love, and understand—and frankly, it's not very likely that even your favorite chain restaurant instills strong emotions in you. Investing in fine wine is fun, but not everyone is into that. So what fits that criteria? Well, for a significant proportion of the world's population, professional sports. Think about your relationship to your favorite sports teams—likely, you can talk about their season, predict successes, understand what particular wins, losses, trades and injuries mean for them overall. And that's just the kind of knowledge that helps make a good investor. So for the sports fans and soon-to-be investors out there, here's how to invest in your favorite sports teams—and no, before you ask, it's not by placing risky and addictive bets.

All About All Sports Market

There are many things you need to consider before purchasing stock. To jump right in, if you want to know how to invest in your favorite sports team, you need to know about All Sports Market, or ASM. ASM is undergoing the process of being approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, but is currently a nonprofit that runs the GSFE, or Global Sports Financial Exchange. This is the Wall Street of sports investing, a new stock exchange dedicated to the world of sports. ASM was founded by actor Zack Ward, with the mission to end sports gambling, and replace it with responsible sports investing. To this end, GSFE is the first major sports stock exchange, allowing fans to invest their money in their favorite sports teams, or even try it out and learn the ropes of investing with fake money.

How It Works

The sports stock market works like any other stock market: you buy and sell "shares" of your favorite teams, and the value goes up and down based on a range of factors, like player trades and injuries, game wins and losses, even weather. But no one factor will make or break your "sportsfolio"—unlike in gambling, sports investing relies on such a wide range of factors that you're not subject to the same total losses (or gains). Instead, your portfolio simply grows and shrinks with the changes in the team—which adds an extra bit of excitement to your love of the game. Imagine how much more invested (get it?) you'll be in your team's big wins or trades, knowing that it will have an effect on your financial investments. In fact, this kind of intertwining of sports and money for big sports fans may just change the way the game is watched by all, adding even more excitement and devotion to those teams that have your allegiance, amplifying the competitive and exciting atmosphere surrounding professional sports even further.

Get your feet wet.

Investing doesn't have to be boring. Sports investing, in particular, is an exciting and personal way to get into the world of finances, which is why it's perfect for younger investors, and older newbies. Bringing sports and investing together makes the world of finance more exciting, and more accessible to people around the world. You still need to know the steps to take to start investing in the stock market though. Plus, ASM has an option to invest with "play" money, and learn how to invest in your favorite sports teams before you put your real money into it. This is a great way to learn about investing in general, for the young and young-at-heart alike, without the risk.

Of course, that doesn't mean it's just for beginners—even the most experienced of investors will surely love the opportunity to be invested in sports and their stock markets.

Skip the gambling.

Some people might want to avoid the combination of professional sports and money, thinking of the dangerous and addictive path of sports gambling. But if you know how to invest in your favorite sports team the right way, there's nothing dangerous about this combination—like any stock market, the sports stock market is based on a lot of different factors, so you're not going to lose all your money in one bad go. By utilizing the right markets, you can invest in a legitimate, safe way, and let your financial portfolio grow with your team's success. In fact, this is one of the main reasons Zack Ward started ASM—to offer an alternative to sports gambling.

Join the multitudes.

A global stock market for sports investing isn't only a good idea for decreasing sports gambling or teaching newbies the ropes of investing. It's also simply a logical step for a country so intimately tied to both sports and money. At present, you can in your teams from the MLB, NFL, NBA, or NHL—but Ward's ultimate goal for the company is to incorporate every sport, for every fan. And even now, the most commonly watched sports are already incorporated, meaning that ASM has something for almost everyone in America—which opens up the world of investing, as many are deterred from investing by their limited knowledge of the industry. Bringing investing to sports, then, opens up a whole new world and a whole new market for sports fans everywhere.

Plus, with the hopeful addition of sports like cricket and rugby, the world of sports investing can be increasingly global, teaching people from anywhere and everywhere about how to invest in your favorite sports teams—whatever your sport of choice. In fact, the nonprofit hopes to soon partner with the major sports leagues, offering the leagues part of each transaction in return, and helping them by boosting their fanbase and viewership, as investors become more and more dedicated to their teams, offering more incentive to tune in and follow the objects of their investments.