Family offices bet on sports, from pickleball leagues to smart soccer balls
Ben Johns comes over to the right side to hit a dink shot against Anna Bright and Hayden Patriquine in the 2026 PPA Carvana Mesa
Ben Johns comes over to the right side to hit a dink shot against Anna Bright and Hayden Patriquine in the 2026 PPA Carvana Mesa Cup finals match of the Pro Mixed Doubles Division at Arizona Athletic Grounds on February 22, 2026 in Mesa, Arizona. A version of this article first appeared in CNBC's Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer.
Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Last month, investment firms of the ultra wealthy went all-in on sports and played on multiple fronts. At the beginning of May, billionaire Tom Dundon's namesake family office partnered with Apollo's new sports fund to invest $225 million in Pickleball Inc., the parent company of Major League Pickleball and the PPA Tour.
Dundon is already an owner of the Portland Trail Blazers NBA team and the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes. As for the major leagues, Michael Dell, as part of an investor group led by Silver Lake's Egon Durban, bought a 25% stake in the Las Vegas Raiders football team. Dell is also a minority investor in the NBA's San Antonio Spurs and the Austin Gamblers, a professional bull riding team.
Family offices made 51 direct investments in companies in May, holding steady from April's deal tally, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by Fintrx, a private wealth intelligence platform.
The BriefWire