Investment firm bets 350M $ on smaller sports teams
For years, private equity money in sports has flowed toward headline grabbing franchises, NBA teams, elite soccer clubs and global racing brands. Smaller teams and leagues, particularly outside the United States, have largely been left out of the investment boom.
A Lisbon area firm believes that imbalance is exactly where the next wave of opportunity lies.
APEX, a sports focused investment company founded by António Caçorino, is preparing to raise 300 million euros, roughly $350 million, to invest in teams, leagues and sports related assets that most large funds have ignored, according to Forbes.
Rather than competing for globally famous franchises, the firm plans to focus on minority stakes in smaller and mid size sports properties, primarily across Europe, where ownership structures, regulation and limited scale have historically discouraged institutional capital.
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For readers outside the sports world, this reflects a broader shift, professional sports are increasingly treated as an asset class, similar to media or infrastructure, rather than purely cultural institutions.
Built on the idea that athletes should be investors
According to APEX’s own website, the firm was founded on a simple premise, as sports became a serious financial asset class, professional athletes should have a seat at the investor table.
The platform was designed to bring together top athletes, financial professionals and industry experts, allowing athletes not only to invest capital, but also to contribute insight, credibility and networks to growing sports businesses.
In 2020, the firm tested whether athletes would embrace an active investor role, and whether the broader market would welcome them. According to APEX, both assumptions proved correct.
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Within its first year, the firm had attracted more than 60 professional athletes and built a portfolio of 12 companies, including a flagship investment in TGL, the technology driven golf league founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Today, APEX operates across venture, growth and private equity strategies, backing everything from early stage sports technology startups to established sports properties, according to the firm.
From cautious investing to bolder ownership
In its early private equity investments, APEX typically took modest minority positions, including stakes in Formula 1 team Alpine and Italian soccer club Venezia FC. Those deals provided access to high profile sports assets, but limited control.
According to Forbes, Caçorino later acknowledged that the firm often delivered more operational value than its ownership level reflected.
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“We kind of felt that with the added value that we’ve brought, we should have a bit more ownership and a bit more governance,” Caçorino said.
At the time, APEX managed about $60 million, much of it invested through a venture capital fund focused on sports technology. That scale constrained the firm’s ability to pursue larger, more influential stakes.
The new fund represents a deliberate move toward greater ownership and deeper involvement.
A $350 million fund with a different target
APEX plans to announce a high growth private equity fund targeting 300 million euros, or roughly $350 million, according to Forbes. The firm intends to use the capital to acquire minority stakes of 20% to 49% in teams, leagues and other sports related assets.
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Caçorino expects the fund to complete between 10 and 20 investments over a 10 year period, with individual deal sizes ranging from $15 million to $50 million. He told Forbes that investor commitments are already secured and that capital is ready to be deployed.
Outside the sports industry, the strategy resembles traditional private equity, acquiring meaningful stakes, improving governance and commercial performance, then exiting to larger buyers.
Why smaller European teams attract interest
European sports differ sharply from American leagues. Many clubs operate under promotion and relegation systems, fragmented media rights markets and complex ownership rules. These features have often deterred large investors.
Caçorino argues that those same challenges reduce competition and suppress valuations.
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According to Forbes, APEX is targeting assets valued between $60 million and $600 million, which the firm believes face fewer regulatory hurdles and offer clearer paths to growth.
The firm also points to its athlete investor network as a differentiator. According to APEX, those relationships can help portfolio companies attract sponsors, adopt new technology and expand internationally.
The risk behind the upside
Not everyone believes the strategy is straightforward.
Andy Appleby, founder of General Sports Worldwide, told Forbes that increasing revenue at smaller clubs usually involves difficult tradeoffs, raising ticket prices, finding new sponsors or developing players to sell.
“There’s nothing simple about it,” Appleby said.
Despite those challenges, Caçorino is targeting annual returns above 20%, compared with long term private equity averages of around 14%, according to data cited by Forbes from Cambridge Associates.
A bridge between local owners and global capital
APEX’s longer term goal is to prepare its investments for sale to much larger financial players entering sports.
According to Forbes, firms such as Apollo Global Management, Ares Management and CVC Capital Partners have committed billions of dollars to sports investments in recent years.
“There’s still a big disparity between people that will potentially sell and the bigger investors,” Caçorino told Forbes. “So that puts us in a beautiful sweet spot.”
By positioning itself between local sports ownership and global institutional capital, APEX is betting that overlooked teams and leagues will become the next frontier of sports finance.
For Caçorino, the timing feels decisive.
“The time is now,” he said, according to Forbes.
Sources, Forbes, APEX Capital Partners, Cambridge Associates
