Business
Football Fever: Investing in the Beautiful Game
Football Fever: Investing in the Beautiful Game
The very mention of football conjures up images of cheering fans from all corners of the world.
The global appeal of the game is undeniable, and it’s the strong support of fans that has propelled its growth into a multi-billion dollar industry.
Today’s infographic from Swissquote tracks how the sport has reached far and wide—even onto the stock exchange.
The Timeline of the Manchester United IPO
Manchester United is the largest publicly-traded football club in the world. The journey of its initial public offering (IPO) can be traced back almost 30 years.
- 1991: Man United floats on the London Stock Exchange (LSE)
It aims to raise £10 million, but falls short and finally raises £6.7 million. - 2003-2005: Malcolm Glazer acquires ownership of Man United
This raises the club’s market capitalization to £790 million, and it delists from the LSE. - 2012: Man United lists on the New York Stock Exchange
It aims to raise £62.8 million in this IPO, but surpasses this with a final raised value of £146.3 million. Interestingly, George Soros was the biggest investor in this deal, buying a nearly 2% stake in the club.
What makes a football team like Manchester United so attractive in the eyes of investors?
Over decades, a flourishing fan base from viewers to consumers has been the force behind the football industry’s success as a whole.
The Big Business of Football
FIFA, the international governing body of football, organizes and promotes all major tournaments. Its total revenue between 2015-2018 can be broken down into a few main components:
Revenue Source | Amount | % of total |
---|---|---|
Broadcasting rights | €2,800 million | 48% |
Marketing rights | €1,500 million | 27% |
Accommodation and ticket sales | €600 million | 11% |
Licensing rights | €500 million | 9% |
Other revenue | €300 million | 5% |
Total: €5,800 million |
In fact, 83% of this total revenue came from the 2018 Russia World Cup alone. This was viewed by approximately 3.6 billion people—nearly half the world’s population.
The World Cup’s revenue even rivals the combined strength of the top five European clubs. How do the five major clubs make their money?
Club | Matchday | Broadcast | Commercial/ Sponsorships | 2019 Revenue |
---|---|---|---|---|
FC Barcelona | €159M | €298M | €384M | €841M |
Real Madrid | €145M | €258M | €355M | €757M |
Man Utd | €121M | €274M | €317M | €712M |
Bayern Munich | €92M | €211M | €357M | €660M |
Paris Saint-German | €116M | €157M | €363M | €636M |
Total | €633M | €1.2B | €1.8B | €3.6B |
As viewership climbs, broadcasting rights furiously grow too—presenting numerous investment opportunities in sponsorship on the pitch and on the screen.
Cashing in on Clubs
Manchester United (NYSE:MANU) set a new precedent for publicly-traded football clubs—with a market cap worth near €1.8 billion today.
Following Man United’s example, other major clubs have since gone public across Europe. As well, Asia presents an emerging opportunity as the sport’s regional popularity expands.
Club | Stock Ticker | Mkt Cap (Jul 31, 2020) |
---|---|---|
🇮🇹 Juventus FC S.p.A | JUVE:IM | €1.19B |
🇩🇪 Borussia Dortmund | BVB:GR | €511M |
🇮🇹 AS Roma | ASR:IM | €320M |
🇬🇧 Celtic F.C. | CCP:LN | €108M (£97M) |
🇨🇳 Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao | NEEQ:834338 | N/A |
🇮🇩 Bali United | IDX:BOLA | €57M (Rp894B) |
China’s most valuable football club—backed in part by e-commerce giant Alibaba—closely matches the valuation of Manchester United.
In Southeast Asia, Bali United was the first team to go public in June 2019. Shares jumped 69% higher than the initial listing price upon its IPO. This move is already propelling more planned IPOs for more football teams in the region, such as Persija Jakarta—the 2018 Liga 1 champion—and Thailand’s Buriram United.
The Future of Football
Football has the power to stir passions and unite people—and it’s reinventing itself constantly.
The 2019 Women’s World Cup was the most watched in tournament history, with over 1.12 billion tuning in. FIFA plans to invest almost €454 million more into the women’s game between 2019-2022, and grow the number of female players to 600 million by 2026.
Additionally, the annual esports tournament eWorld Cup is taking place in Thailand in 2020—tapping into the esports boom in Asia, which hosts 57% of esports enthusiasts.
Any football fan will tell you that the beautiful game is more than just a sport. And for investors, there are a variety of ways to gain exposure to this market—meaning fans can be both personally and financially invested as it continues to grow.
Technology
Ranked: The Top 50 Most Visited Websites in the World
In this visualization, we rank the top 50 websites that receive the most internet traffic, from Google to CNN.

Ranked: The Top 50 Most Visited Websites in the World
Estimates vary, but there are upwards of two billion websites in existence in 2023.
If we were to rank all of these websites according to their traffic numbers, we would see a classic power law distribution. At the low end, the vast majority of these websites would be inactive, receiving little to no traffic. On the upper end of the ranking though, a handful of websites receive the lion’s share of internet traffic.
This visualization, using data from SimilarWeb, takes a look at the 50 websites that currently sit at the top of the ranking.
Which Websites Get the Most Traffic?
Topping the list of most-visited websites in the world is, of course, Google. With over 3.5 billion searches per day, Google has cemented its position as the go-to source for information on the internet. But Google’s dominance doesn’t stop there. The company also owns YouTube, the second-most popular website in the world. Together, Google and YouTube have more traffic than the next 48 websites combined.
The power of YouTube, in particular, is sometimes not fully understood. The video platform is the second largest search engine in the world after Google. As well, YouTube has the second highest duration-of-visit numbers in this top 50 ranking. (First place goes to the Chinese video sharing website, Bilibili.)
But Google and YouTube aren’t the only big players on the internet. Other websites in the top 50 ranking include social media giants Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. In particular, TikTok has seen a surge in popularity in recent years and is now one of the most popular social media platforms in the world.
Here’s the full top 50 ranking table form:
Rank | Website | Monthly Traffic | Category | Country |
---|---|---|---|---|
#1 | google.com | 85.1B | Search Engines | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#2 | youtube.com | 33.0B | Streaming & Online TV | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#3 | facebook.com | 17.8B | Social Media Networks | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#4 | twitter.com | 6.8B | Social Media Networks | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#5 | instagram.com | 6.1B | Social Media Networks | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#6 | baidu.com | 5.0B | Search Engines | 🇨🇳 China |
#7 | wikipedia.org | 4.8B | Dictionaries & Encyclopedias | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#8 | yandex.ru | 3.4B | Search Engines | 🇷🇺 Russia |
#9 | yahoo.com | 3.3B | News & Media Publishers | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#10 | whatsapp.com | 2.9B | Social Media Networks | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#11 | xvideo.com | 2.8B | Adult | 🇨🇿 Czechia |
#12 | amazon.com | 2.6B | Marketplace | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#13 | pornhub.com | 2.5B | Adult | 🇨🇦 Canada |
#14 | xnxx.com | 2.3B | Adult | 🇫🇷 France |
#15 | live.com | 2.1B | 🇺🇸 U.S. | |
#16 | yahoo.co.jp | 2.1B | News & Media Publishers | 🇯🇵 Japan |
#17 | netflix.com | 2.0B | Streaming & Online TV | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#18 | tiktok.com | 1.8B | Social Media Networks | 🇨🇳 China |
#19 | docomo.ne.jp | 1.8B | Telecommunications | 🇯🇵 Japan |
#20 | reddit.com | 1.7B | Social Media Networks | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#21 | office.com | 1.6B | Prog. & Developer Software | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#22 | linkedin.com | 1.6B | Social Media Networks | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#23 | dzen.ru | 1.4B | Faith & Beliefs | 🇷🇺 Russia |
#24 | samsung.com | 1.4B | Consumer Electronics | 🇰🇷 S. Korea |
#25 | vk.com | 1.4B | Social Media Networks | 🇷🇺 Russia |
#26 | xhamster.com | 1.3B | Adult | 🇨🇾 Cyprus |
#27 | turbopages.org | 1.3B | News & Media Publishers | 🇷🇺 Russia |
#28 | mail.ru | 1.2B | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
#29 | naver.com | 1.2B | News & Media Publishers | 🇰🇷 S. Korea |
#30 | bing.com | 1.2B | Search Engines | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#31 | microsoftonline.com | 1.1B | Prog. & Developer Software | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#32 | discord.com | 1.1B | Social Media Networks | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#33 | twitch.tv | 1.1B | Gaming & Accessories | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#34 | bilibili.com | 1.0B | Animations & Comics | 🇨🇳 China |
#35 | pinterest.com | 1.0B | Social Media Networks | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#36 | zoom.us | 985.9M | Computers Electronics & Tech | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#37 | weather.com | 985.7M | Weather | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#38 | qq.com | 907.1M | News & Media Publishers | 🇨🇳 China |
#39 | microsoft.com | 902.3M | Prog. & Developer Software | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#40 | msn.com | 870.8M | News & Media Publishers | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#41 | globo.com | 840.1M | News & Media Publishers | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
#42 | duckduckgo.com | 839.0M | Search Engines | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#43 | roblox.com | 795.7M | Gaming & Accessories | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#44 | quora.com | 775.9M | Dictionaries & Encyclopedias | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#45 | news.yahoo.co.jp | 749.1M | News & Media Publishers | 🇯🇵 Japan |
#46 | ebay.com | 728.0M | Marketplace | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#47 | aajtak.in | 724.1M | News & Media Publishers | 🇮🇳 India |
#48 | nytimes.com | 702.2M | News & Media Publishers | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#49 | realsrv.com | 688.0M | Adult | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
#50 | cnn.com | 684.9M | News & Media Publishers | 🇺🇸 U.S. |
Notable companies that have fallen out of the top 50 since our last version of this visualization are Walmart and PayPal. Notable entrants into the top 50 are Samsung and the New York Times.
The Geography of the 50 Most-Visited Websites
The United States is still home base for many of the world’s biggest websites, taking up 30 spots on this ranking. Of these 30 websites, half are operated by Big Tech companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Netflix.
Russia, China, Japan, and South Korea round out the top five.
Things get interesting in the “other” category, which includes six websites. Two spots are taken up by Aaj Tak and Globo, which are large media publications in India and Brazil, respectively.
The remaining four websites—XVideos, PornHub, XHamster, and XNXX—specialize in adult content, and are located in a variety of countries. These are often referred to as “tube sites” since they are built on the YouTube model.
Realsrv, the only adult-oriented site in the top 50 located in the U.S., is interesting to delve into as well, since it’s far from a household name. The website essentially supports advertising efforts by redirecting users away from the content they were viewing over to another page (generally premium adult content). This is one of the key ways that adult websites earn revenue.
Where does this data come from?
Source: SimilarWeb
Notes: Websites listed include “all meaningful subdomains”, and categories in the graphic follow SimilarWeb’s categorization system. This is the third version of this graphic. As with previous versions, we aim to use data from November for the sake of consistency and to avoid seasonal fluctuations in traffic. One important detail to point out is that website traffic does not include app traffic, which is why popular platforms like WeChat don’t appear in this ranking.
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