Wall Street’s Plan to Make Sports an Investable Asset

Trillions episode on efforts to build tradeable index products around sports team performance, the groundwork for futures and ETFs. Hosts Eric Balchunas and Vildana Hajric of Bloomberg News speak with FutureSports co-founder Leigh Taylforth and head of index services Jodie Gunzberg about index methodology, recent filings for team-based sports ETFs, and how the products could be used to hedge exposure to wins and losses. The guests describe their backgrounds as derivatives traders and the process of meeting with regulators and leagues while developing the approach.

1. Multiple issuers have filed for sports team ETFs in recent months, including leveraged versions, though none are yet live.
2. FutureSports is building indexes on sporting statistics, choosing which statistics to include and how to weight them.
3. The founders are former derivatives traders who say the idea came from noticing how much risk sports investors carry and how hard it is to hedge.
4. They describe meeting with the CFTC and professional leagues, and pitching the products to media rights holders, stadium operators, sponsors and other sports-related businesses.