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.
Business
The World’s Largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
Real estate investment trusts (REITS) are a simple alternative for investors looking to gain exposure to real estate.

The World’s Largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
Real estate is widely regarded as an attractive asset class for investors.
This is because it offers several benefits like diversification (due to less correlation with stocks), monthly income, and protection from inflation. The latter is known as “inflation hedging”, and stems from real estate’s tendency to appreciate during periods of rising prices.
Affordability, of course, is a major barrier to investing in most real estate. Property markets around the world have reached bubble territory, making it incredibly difficult for people to get their foot in the door.
Thankfully, there are easier ways of gaining exposure. One of these is purchasing shares in a real estate investment trust (REIT), a type of company that owns and operates income-producing real estate, and is most often publicly-traded.
What Qualifies as REIT?
To qualify as a REIT in the U.S., a company must meet several criteria:
- Invest at least 75% of assets in real estate, cash , or U.S. Treasuries
- Derive at least 75% of gross income from rents, interest on mortgages, or real estate sales
- Pay at least 90% of taxable income in the form of shareholder dividends
- Be a taxable corporation
- Be managed by a board of directors or trustees
- Have at least 100 shareholders after one year of operations
- Have no more than half its shares held by five or fewer people
Investing in a REIT is similar to purchasing shares of any other publicly-traded company. There are also exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds which may hold a basket of REITs. Lastly, note that some REITs are private, meaning they aren’t traded on stock exchanges.
The Top 10 by Market Cap
Here are the world’s 10 largest publicly-traded REITs, as of March 25, 2022.
REIT | Market Cap | Dividend Yield | Property Type |
---|---|---|---|
Prologis (NYSE: PLD) | $116.4B | 2.03% | Industrial |
American Tower (NYSE: AMT) | $109.8B | 2.38% | Communications |
Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI | $76.8B | 3.35% | Communications |
Public Storage (NYSE: PSA) | $65.9B | 2.14% | Self-storage |
Equinix (NYSE: EQIX) | $64.4B | 1.74% | Data centers |
Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG) | $48.9B | 5.07% | Malls |
Welltower (NYSE: WELL) | $43.0B | 2.58% | Healthcare |
Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR) | $40.1B | 3.55% | Data centers |
Realty Income (NYSE: O) | $40.1B | 4.44% | Commercial |
AvalonBay Communities (NYSE: AVB) | $34.6B | 2.62% | Residential |
As shown above, REITs focus on different sectors of the market. Understanding their differences is an important step to consider before making an investment.
For example, Prologis manages the world’s largest portfolio of logistics real estate. This includes warehouses, distribution centers, and other supply chain facilities around the globe. It’s reasonable to assume that this REIT would benefit from further growth in ecommerce—more on this near the end.
Realty Income, on the other hand, owns a portfolio of over 11,100 commercial real estate properties in the U.S. and Europe. It rents these properties out to major brands like Walgreens and 7-Eleven, which together account for 8.1% of the REIT’s annual income.
More Than Just Buildings
Cell towers and data centers may not seem like “real estate”, but they are both critical pieces of modern infrastructure that take up land.
REITs that focus on these sectors include American Tower and Crown Castle, which own wireless communications assets in the U.S. and abroad. They are likely to benefit from the increased adoption of 5G networks and the Internet of Things (IoT).
On the other hand, Equinix and Digital Realty are focused on data centers, a fast growing industry that is benefitting from digitalization. Both of these REITs work with major tech firms such as Amazon and Google.
Trends to Watch
The demand for real estate can be heavily influenced by overarching trends found around the world. One of these is population growth and urbanization, which has drastically pushed up the cost of housing in many cities around the world.
There’s also the rising prevalence of ecommerce, which has triggered a boom in demand for warehouse space. This is best captured by Amazon’s massive growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the company doubled the number of its warehouse facilities.
Globally, ecommerce accounts for just 19.6% of total retail sales. Should that figure continue to rise, industrial real estate prices could be in store for robust, long-term growth.
Misc
Walmart Owns Most of the Supermarkets in Mexico
Walmart’s presence in Mexico is dominant, with over 2,700 stores. How does their store count compare to companies in the region?

Walmart Owns Most of the Supermarkets in Mexico
The U.S. and Mexico have influenced each other in many ways over the course of their history, through both the exchange of culture and the cross-border trade of goods and services. One lesser-known area of overlap between the two nations? Supermarket ownership.
This graphic from Latinometrics ranks supermarket popularity in Mexico by tallying the number of locations per chain, and showing who owns those brands.
Mexico’s Relationship with Walmart
When it comes to supermarkets in Mexico, no single company comes close to matching the reach of Walmart. Also the world’s largest company by revenue, Walmart has over 2,700 stores in the country, including chains it owns such as Sam’s Club and Bodega Aurrera. The latter is both the largest supermarket within the Walmart category, and also the most popular in Mexico.
Bodega Aurrera was first established in the 1970s, two decades before Walmart entered Mexico’s market directly in 1991. The discount store now has some 2,000 locations across the country.
In fact, it’s almost safe to say that Mexico is Walmart’s second home. After the U.S., which has just over 5,000 stores, the greatest number of Walmart stores reside in Mexico. But on a per capita basis, there are more Walmart-owned stores in Mexico. Specifically, there is about one Walmart-owned store per 47,000 Mexicans, compared to 62,000 for Americans.
Country | Number of Walmart Stores |
---|---|
USA | 5,342 |
Mexico | 2,755 |
Central America | 864 |
UK* | 632 |
China | 397 |
Africa | 414 |
Canada | 408 |
Chile | 384 |
Japan* | 328 |
India | 29 |
Source: Walmart.com, Statista (International figures, January 2022), *Japan/UK figures from January 2021
The company’s presence in Mexico is so strong that Walmart’s Mexico division trades separately on the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV) under the name Walmex. In March of 2022, Walmex had a market cap above 1.3 trillion pesos, or $64 billion.
Supermarkets in Mexico by Revenue Market Share
Overall, with the thousands of stores that they operate, Walmart’s revenue in Mexico gives it a 68% market share within the country’s supermarket industry.
Other American grocery retailers to make the list include H-E-B, a San Antonio-based chain with stores in northeast Mexico, and Costco, which opened its first Mexican location in 1992 as Price Club (before the companies merged).
Sorianna, the next biggest supermarket operator, holds about 15% of the industry’s market share. It is joined by Chedraui, Casa Ley, La Comer, and Alsuper as Mexico’s biggest domestic grocery chains, with some of them also extending their reach into the Southwest United States.
-
Misc2 weeks ago
The Top 10 Largest Nuclear Explosions, Visualized
-
Energy2 weeks ago
Mapped: Solar and Wind Power by Country
-
Politics2 weeks ago
Mapped: The State of Global Democracy in 2022
-
Datastream4 weeks ago
Visualizing Companies with the Most Patents Granted in 2021
-
Technology2 weeks ago
Synthetic Biology: The $3.6 Trillion Science Changing Life as We Know It
-
Markets4 weeks ago
Why Investors Tuned Out Netflix
-
Energy1 week ago
Visualizing U.S. Crude Oil and Petroleum Product Imports in 2021
-
Markets3 weeks ago
Charted: U.S. Consumer Debt Approaches $16 Trillion