American football’s elite NFL has made its latest move into the investment world, partnering with General Atlantic to launch a new investment platform.
General Atlantic will form a joint venture partnership with 32 Equity, the NFL’s in-house investment platform, to target investment opportunities “across the sports industry.”
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Established in 2013, 32 Equity serves as a vehicle for investment by each of the NFL’s 32 franchises, which each serves as a member of the business.
Those 32 firms voted to approve the joint venture at the league’s October owners meeting on Tuesday, with 32 Equity advised by PJT Partners in the transition.
In a joint statement to Bloomberg, General Atlantic and 32 Equity said that they “aim to advance new ways for people to experience and engage with sport.”
Through 32 Equity, the NFL has already made a number of investments, reportedly 46 in total, across the sports space, including in e-commerce giant Fanatics, hospitality and experience firm On Location, mobile esports platform Skillz, and global OTT streaming service DAZN.
The most recent of those investments, 32 Equity’s DAZN transaction, took place in August after 32 Equity sold its shares in the commercial media distributor EverPass Media to DAZN.
General Atlantic has around $130 billion of assets under management, including several prominent sports and sports-industry adjacent properties.
Such investments include $2 billion in Authentic Brands Group (the owner of Reebok, among others), a stake in the owner of Mexican soccer giants Club America, and a 2024 investment into Brazilian sports marketing agency and broadcast rights manager LiveMode, which has built a rights empire in its home market over the past few years through the CazeTV streaming channel.
Staying in Brazil, a target foreign market for the NFL, General Atlantic is also one of several funds that together acquired a 20% stake in the commercial rights of Liga Forte Uniao (LFU), a coalition of clubs in the country’s Serie A and Serie B divisions which operate a collective media rights sales strategy.
That deal, effective as of 2025, will last for 50 years, reflecting General Atlantic’s long-term outlook.
