Professional Athletes As Investments

[looksgoodinred]

Interesting. Surprised it took so long to be honest.

 

 

On Thursday, a start-up company announced a new trading exchange for investors to buy and sell interests in professional athletes. Backed by executives from Silicon Valley, Wall Street and the sports world, the company plans to create stocks tied to an athlete’s financial performance.

After considering a number of possibilities for its inaugural initial public offering, the company found a charismatic candidate in Arian Foster, the Pro Bowl running back of the Houston Texans. Investors in the deal will receive stock linked to Mr. Foster’s future earnings, which includes the value of his playing contracts, corporate endorsements and appearance fees.

But if such an investment sounds speculative, that is because it is. In a filing for the Foster deal with securities regulators, Fantex laid out 37 pages of risk factors, including a possible career-ending injury or a performance slump.

As for Mr. Foster, he will receive a $10 million payment from Fantex upon consummation of the offering. (The balance of the I.P.O. covers the deal’s costs.) In exchange for the payment, Mr. Foster has promised to pay Fantex 20 percent of his future earnings.

The company is effectively financing the $10 million payment to Mr. Foster by raising money from retail investors in an I.P.O. In its filings, Fantex says it believes that the stock is intended to track the economic performance of Mr. Foster’s future brand income.

could hardly see it being a long-term investment strategy, so much as driving up interest in up-and-coming players in various sports, and making it more entertaining to watch your investments play and succeed.

i'd be up for a piece of Tom Brady if it were on offer

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/10/17/want-a-piece-of-a-star-athlete-now-you-really-can-buy-one/?_r=0

[daytripping]

That sounds a really really bad investment, to break even would even be a miracle unless the guy is a legend in the making.

[Ke1t]

I think you might as well just go to the Casino and stick all your savings on black or red.

 

Like Old Man Daytripping says, sounds like a horrendously bad investment.

[looksgoodinred]

i couldn't agree with you more. that's why i said i couldn't see it as a long-term investment strategy. it's just "fun" betting.. possibly a return at some point. it just allows you to feel a keener interest and possibly more closely follow a particular player or players because you have an "interest" in them.

 

might make following MLS more entertaining.

[daytripping]

Many moons ago the local newspaper here the Evening Express had a syndicate to buy a share in a racehorse, I thought it looked a good bit of fun and being a relatively well off loon with no kids then sent in my £50, I probably owned a toenail,

 

The horse was called Yorkshire Fisher, it was a fucking donkey, lost race after race but no big deal, the owners hotline kept you up to date and said it was recovering from injury etc and not to bet as it wasn't fit, things were soon to change!

 

One day after calling the line the trainer, Mick Easterby (a pretty well known name in racing circles in Britain) said it was flying in training and this may be its race, I still recall heading to the bookies in Kincorth after work with half my co workers in tow (it was a Friday night), this was pre internet betting days, the horse was 12/1 and we all piled on, I was a nervous wreck chain smoking in the corner (pre smoking ban days), I can almost still recall the noise as the horse headed for the line with a 20 length lead, we were bouncing about the place and made a racket that could have been heard in town, it won the race easy and we cleaned out the bookie, most including me headed into town and got pissed, I won £600, about a Months wages.

 

The investment returned fuck all but that betting day did, it made me a lot of pals for the night as well.

 

The horse never raced again, fuck knows what happened to it, they never said, probably cat food, I'll always love that thing though for those few seconds running up to the line!

 

I reckon investing in this guy could be a bit of fun is the moral, you'd be screaming at your telly every time he got the ball.

[Henry]

Aye, I enjoyed that Dayts min.