“What we’re building into is not cyclical, but secular. AI will reshape almost everything about how we work and create. Paradoxically, that will only increase the value of being human together: gathering, belonging, cheering, participating, identifying with something larger than ourselves. Sports, entertainment, live experiences, and the technologies that power them sit squarely in that shift. To us, it looks like a generational opportunity.”
Sports in an AI World
The internet gave everyone access to information. AI is giving everyone the ability to create, write, design, code, edit, animate, sell, & distribute. With this transformation, the world is becoming increasingly digital, algorithmic, and artificial.
But as technology scales, something unexpected is happening: human experiences are becoming more valuable (not less), and human connection is now becoming a scarce asset. People are craving:
- belonging
- movement
- community
- competition
- real-world interaction
A Live Nation Global Study found that 93% of people crave real experiences over digital ones and 80% would rather spend on experiences than things. The more artificial the world becomes, the more humans seek what feels real. And no industry sits at the center of that shift more than sports.
Sports Were Never Just About The Game
Sports are one of the last remaining forms of mass tribal identity. People don’t just watch or play sports; they belong to them. Even in tough economic times, people continue to spend on sports & entertainment, whether that’s attending a game, buying apparel, or paying for their kids’ youth travel tournament.
In an era where institutions are weakening and digital life is becoming increasingly isolated, sports remain one of the few systems capable of creating emotional connection at scale. Sports is becoming THE infrastructure layer for human connection. We call this “sports as a wedge”, which is another way to say the ability for sports companies to expand into other large markets. This trend is set to accelerate at an unprecedented pace over the next few decades, as sports naturally touch so many adjacent sectors.
- Wellness/Fitness: Athletes inspire millions to adopt healthier lifestyles, creating a natural bridge to products and services.
- Collectibles: Trading cards, NFTs, and other memorabilia have become a booming market.
- Healthcare: Cutting-edge sports medicine leaks to general healthcare.
- Creator Economy: From personal brands to digital platforms, sports engage audiences in authentic and impactful ways.
- Esports/Gaming: Engages a younger and tech-savvy audience.
- Fashion/Apparel: Sportswear and athleisure are significant segments in the fashion industry, driven by the influence of athletes and sports culture.
- Media/Entertainment: Sports media is the last form of live content.
- Travel/Tourism: Sporting events draw millions of tourists worldwide, contributing significantly to local economies and the travel industry.
- Sponsorship: Brands leverage sports sponsorships and endorsements to reach wide audiences, which creates the need for products & services.
- Social Impact: Sports initiatives often focus on community development, social inclusion, and charitable activities.
- Event Management: The organization of sporting events involves a specialized industry that covers logistics, planning, and execution.
This is what we believe makes “sports” a generational investment opportunity.
AI Doesn’t Kill Sport: It Amplifies It
Most people think AI threatens sports. We believe the opposite (and you can already see the shift happening).
AI makes digital experiences cheaper and more abundant. When content becomes infinite, scarcity shifts elsewhere toward:
- trust
- reputation
- community
- live experiences
- human performance
- emotional connection
Sports benefit directly from this shift, which is also why we believe some of the greatest technologies will come from the industry.
We Are Entering The Startup Era Of Sports
For decades, sports were centralized. A small number of firms controlled:
- rights
- audiences
- distribution
Launching a meaningful sports property or company was challenging. That world is breaking apart. Look at how many notable sports leagues exist in just the United States today.
We’re seeing a massive shift take place:
- athletes owning distribution
- niche communities scaling globally
- technology lowering operational barriers
- fans no longer consuming sports one way
- emerging leagues attracting massive audiences
- creators & communities building scalable businesses overnight
The next generation of sports businesses won’t look like the past at all. They will look more like a mix of data networks, software platforms, creator ecosystems, experiential businesses, and community-driven brands. We are witnessing the startupification of sports. And just like every major technological shift before it, infrastructure matters more than incumbency.
The Infrastructure Layer Is Undervalued
Most capital in sports still flows toward:
- teams
- leagues
- media rights
But we believe the largest opportunities sit underneath the ecosystem itself in the infrastructure, or what is usually referred to as the picks & shovels. You can see we’re in the early innings of “sports as a wedge” by looking at companies within our thesis that have surpassed billion-dollar valuations while pioneering new categories.
These are the operating systems that started in sports but also captured other markets (on both the B2B and B2C fronts). Sports remain massively underbuilt in software and operations compared to other industries. That gap creates opportunity.
Community Becomes The Moat
In a world flooded with content, audiences are no longer enough. The strongest businesses of the next decade will build communities. Communities create:
- trust
- retention
- participation
- network effects
- emotional attachment
We’ve seen this first-hand, having built the largest community in sports business. We realized early on that algorithms drive attention, but they cannot manufacture genuine belonging. This is especially powerful in our industry because sports naturally create recurring emotional engagement (and lead to loyal consumers with high LTVs). The future winners in sports will combine:
- data
- media
- software
- commerce
- community
- experiences
Bundling all of these into integrated ecosystems will yield massive results.
Sports Is Becoming A Global Operating System
Sports increasingly influence human behavior:
- how we spend
- how we gather
- how we socialize
- how we consume media
- how culture itself spreads
- how we identify ourselves
- how nations project influence
It is one of the few remaining global languages. Sports can transcend geography, language, politics, income, age, and ideology. The next great sports companies will not just entertain people, they will coordinate communities, shape identity, influence behavior, and power entirely new economic ecosystems.
Why Profluence Exists
We believe the future of sports will be built at the intersection of media, capital, community, technology, and live experiences. Not by operating as a traditional investment firm, but by building an ecosystem around the future itself.
Together, our compounding ecosystem is designed to identify and support the next generation of sports businesses earlier than traditional systems can. The future of sports (and adjacent categories) will belong to the platforms, infrastructure, and communities shaping how humans connect in an increasingly artificial world. And we believe that shift is only just beginning.
