Private Credit's New Playing Field: Sports Assets Repriced Like Infrastructure
The world's largest private credit firms are increasingly viewing professional sports as infrastructure rather than entertainment. Media rights, gate receipts, and merchandise create stable, recurring cash flows.
The world's largest private credit firms are increasingly viewing professional sports not as entertainment but as infrastructure. Media rights, gate receipts, merchandise, and naming rights create stable, predictable cash flows with inflation-linkage and long contract duration — precisely the characteristics that infrastructure lenders prize.
The repricing is visible in transaction multiples: sports franchise acquisitions that would have transacted at 10–12x EBITDA in 2018 are now clearing at 18–22x, reflecting both the cash flow quality re-rating and the scarcity premium of limited-supply assets.
TGG's pickleball platform in Asia is being built on this thesis — and it is a pioneer model. There is no established comparable for a vertically integrated pickleball operator in Asia. The absence of comparables cuts both ways: it limits near-term valuation benchmarks but also means the category leader will set the precedent.
For private credit lenders, the sports infrastructure opportunity in Asia requires a patient capital approach and willingness to price novelty risk. For equity investors, the upside of category creation is substantially larger than in established sports markets.
