From The Locker Room To The Boardroom: A Simple Guide To Sports Investing For Athletes

When I released my last article about athlete investors reshaping the sports economy, I expected a few messages. What I didn’t expect was how many current and former athletes reached out asking the same thing:

“Okay… but how do I actually understand this investing stuff?”

It’s a fair question. Most of us didn’t grow up learning about sports investing for athletes. We grew up around training sessions, film study, and potentially some budgeting to manage our salaries. Financial education wasn’t exactly part of the locker-room culture.

So this follow-up article is for you — the athlete who wants to start investing but needs the basics explained in a way that makes sense. No complicated jargon. No talking down. Just practical, foundational knowledge.

1. What an SPV Actually Is

Let’s start with the most common question I received: “What is an SPV?”

An SPV — Special Purpose Vehicle — is simply a temporary investment entity created for one specific deal. Think of it like forming a team just for a single tournament. You assemble the roster, compete, and when the tournament ends, everyone goes their separate ways.

SPVs are everywhere in sports investing because they let many investors combine their capital into one organized investment structure. For athletes, this often becomes the easiest entry point into investing.

Before investing in an SPV, ask:

• Who is managing it?

• What fees does it charge?

• What exactly is the SPV investing in?

• How long is the projected timeline?

If those answers aren’t clear, it’s not a deal you should rush into.

2. Due Diligence — The Scouting Report of Investing

Athletes understand scouting. You study opponents, identify patterns, and build a game plan. That’s all due diligence is: doing your homework before committing your money.

The best founders can explain their business simply and honestly. If you walk away from a pitch call more confused than informed, that’s the equivalent of a coach drawing up a play you’ve never seen before on a chalkboard five minutes before kickoff.

You don’t need to become an expert, but you do need the courage to ask questions like:

• “How do you make money?”

• “What are your biggest risks?”

• “Who are your competitors?”

Good founders won’t shy away from these.

3. Deal Flow — Seeing Enough Deals to Build Judgment

Deal flow refers to the number of investment opportunities that come across your desk. The more deals you see, the faster you develop a sense of what good and bad opportunities look like.

This is why networking matters. The right relationships increase deal flow, which improves your future decision-making. Most athletes make the mistake of only seeing one or two deals a year — and when that happens, everything looks good.

Deal flow gives you perspective.

4. Understanding Valuation (A Key Sports Investing for Athletes Necessity)

Founders will often say they’re raising at an “$8 million valuation” or a “$20 million valuation.” That number determines how much of the company your check actually buys.

There are two types of valuations:

• Pre-money valuation: the company’s value before new investment

• Post-money valuation: the value after investment

You don’t need to memorize formulas. Just focus on this: does the valuation realistically match the results, traction, and story?

If it feels inflated, it probably is.

5. Equity, SAFEs, and Convertible Notes

These are the three most common ways athletes invest in early-stage companies.

Equity gives you ownership immediately.

SAFEs grant you ownership later, typically when the company raises another round.

Convertible notes are loans that convert into equity over time.

Each has pros and cons. What matters is that you understand which one you’re signing and why it’s being offered. Never hesitate to ask for clarification—this is your money.

6. Carry — How Investors Get Paid

Carry (carried interest) is how fund managers and SPV leads make money from the upside. If someone has “20% carry,” it means they earn 20% of the profit after investors receive their return.

Why does this matter to athletes?

Because it tells you how incentives are aligned. If someone makes most of their money from fees and not the upside, be cautious. If their upside is tied to your upside, that’s a much healthier alignment.

7. Fees — Understand What You’re Paying For

This is one area where athletes need to be extra sharp. Every deal has fees — sometimes fair, sometimes not. SPVs typically have administrative fees, setup fees, and occasionally management fees. Some platforms are very transparent; others are not.

A few questions you should always ask:

• “What fees am I paying?”

• “What do these fees cover?”

• “How do you get compensated?”

If someone can’t explain the fee structure clearly, that’s a problem.

8. The Cap Table — Who Owns What

The cap table is essentially the roster sheet of a company’s ownership. It shows how much founders own, how much investors own, and how much equity is still available.

A healthy cap table usually has:

• committed founders with real ownership

• credible early investors

• enough equity remaining for growth

If the founders barely own anything, or if everyone is massively diluted early, that’s a warning sign.

9. What Athletes Should Listen for on Pitch Calls

This is where your athletic instincts kick in. You’ve spent your whole life evaluating leadership, communication, and trust in coaches and teammates. Pitch calls are no different.

On a pitch call, pay attention to:

• clarity

• honesty

• confidence

• transparency

• real traction (not exaggerated claims)

One simple rule:

If a founder dodges questions, complicates simple topics, or rushes the timeline, the deal isn’t right for you.

A Starting Point, Not the Final Destination

This guide isn’t meant to turn every athlete into a private equity expert. It’s meant to give you a foundation — enough to enter conversations with confidence, ask sharper questions, and protect yourself.

Athletes have more value in the investment world than they realize. They bring cultural influence, firsthand experience, and built-in trust — things that money can’t buy.

The better informed we all become, the more we can shape the sports economy not just as players, but as owners, advisors, and partners.

If you’re an athlete and you want to learn more, reach out. I’m learning right alongside you — this journey is better when we learn together.