The NFL Should Launch Its Own Private Equity Fund

The NFL was the last major U.S. sports league to allow private equity firms to acquire stakes in its teams.

Now, rumors are circling that the NFL could be launching its own private equity firm.

A bombshell Sportico article hinted that the NFL is in talks to create a new fund seeded by the team owners and an institutional partner:

The NFL already runs a successful corporate venture arm, 32 Equity, with $250M+ raised. It recently hired Sumit Varshney as SVP of Strategic Investments to lead its next phase.

And the NFL is the most profitable league in the world, generating $25B in annual revenue.

Why not build out a private equity fund?

In this deep dive, we’ll break down:

Let’s get into it.

In 2013, the NFL launched its corporate venture arm: 32 Equity. The name comes from the league’s 32 teams and the initial capital raised from owners.

Each of the 32 team owners pledged $1M.

Early success led to additional capital deployments.

Fast forward to today, 32 Equity has raised up to $256M in investable capital, including an additional $32M used to fund the new pro flag football league the NFL is incubating with TMRW Sports.

So what makes 32 Equity so successful?

We pulled all 46 direct 32 Equity investments via PitchBook and had Endex break down its unique investment philosophy.

Here’s what we found:

From the data and our research, three distinct strategies emerged across 32 Equity’s tenure: incubation + roll-up, tech investing, and IP leverage.

32 Equity hasn’t just invested in companies – the NFL has helped incubate them across media, hospitality, and new leagues alongside outside operating partners.

One name shows up consistently: Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital Partners.

Three examples stand out:

The NFL launched NFL On Location in 2006 to bring premium Super Bowl hospitality in-house across travel packages, suites, hotels, and other experiences.

But executives saw an opportunity to turn it into a third-party hospitality platform. In 2015, 32 Equity partnered with RedBird Capital and Bruin Capital to spin out the business.

By 2019, On Location had gone from serving only the NFL to working with 150+ rights holders and generating roughly $600M in annual revenue.

Endeavor eventually acquired the business for $660M, with the NFL rolling over part of its stake and giving 32 Equity exposure to one of the world’s largest talent and entertainment businesses.

When the NFL sold residential Sunday Ticket rights to YouTube, it still needed a solution for bars, restaurants, hotels, and other commercial venues.

So in 2023, the NFL and RedBird created EverPass Media. RedBird became the majority owner/operator, while 32 Equity invested alongside it around a commercial Sunday Ticket license reportedly worth ~$200M annually.

EverPass then expanded into commercial distribution across the Premier League, Champions League, NBA, NHL, and more.

In August 2026, DAZN announced its acquisition of EverPass – once again rolling 32 Equity into a much larger global sports media platform.

In 2022, the NFL, NFL Films, and Skydance – itself backed by RedBird – turned Skydance Sports into a joint venture focused on building a global multi-sport production studio.

32 Equity owned 45% of the JV, pairing NFL Films’ IP, archives, and access with Skydance’s Hollywood production capabilities.

Following Skydance’s merger with Paramount and Paramount’s subsequent Warner Bros. Discovery transaction, that stake gives 32 Equity exposure to a massive portfolio of live sports, Hollywood, and cable assets.

32 Equity has also made successful early-stage bets on technology products strategically relevant to the NFL’s broader operations.

Two stand out:

We think 32 Equity is well-positioned to invest in more cutting-edge tech products.

More on that later.

The NFL realized that for certain businesses, its IP wasn’t just valuable – it was core to the product.

Fanatics is the clearest example. 

In 2017, 32 Equity invested $95M for a 3% stake in the company, which was already one of the NFL’s largest merchandise licensees.

A year later, the NFL, Nike, and Fanatics signed a 10-year deal giving Fanatics exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute Nike-branded NFL adult fan apparel.

Then in 2022, the NFL invested another $320M into Fanatics at a $27B valuation.

For context: that original 3% stake would be worth roughly $930M at Fanatics’ $31B valuation if it remained undiluted.

It may just be 32 Equity’s biggest investment win yet.

32 Equity is making bigger bets after launching a new $192M pro flag football league.

If it had much more capital to deploy, what should it invest in?

We had a few ideas.

The NFL is rapidly expanding its content portfolio beyond live games.

Through Skydance Sports, the league has been building its own content studio where it’ll produce scripted series, documentaries, and theatrical films – just as AI is beginning to dramatically reduce production costs across Hollywood.

ByteDance’s Seedance 2.5 can already generate up to 30 seconds of finished audio-video in one pass, while companies like Higgsfield are building the production layer that turns these models into cinematic content for filmmakers and advertisers.

That creates an interesting opportunity for 32 Equity: invest in the infrastructure that could eventually produce NFL content and advertising at scale.

Higgsfield already has the capabilities to produce its own AI-generated feature films. 

We think its technology could be particularly compelling for animation – from short-form NFL storytelling to entirely fictional football series – without replacing premium live-action production.

Could we eventually see a Higgsfield x NFL partnership?

Higgsfield just raised $400M at a $5.4B valuation, meaning 32 Equity would likely need a much larger capital base to make a meaningful strategic investment.

The NBA is building its own league in Europe and is now exploring a merger or ownership stake in EuroLeague.

Meanwhile, the NFL just hosted its first regular-season game in Australia as it continues expanding football overseas.

Australia already has a massive football ecosystem of its own.

With a larger fund at its disposal, could the NFL eventually acquire stakes in international leagues like the Australian Football League (AFL)? 

Through a strategic partnership via 32 Equity, the NFL could help accelerate football infrastructure and commercial growth in key international markets.

And the AFL would be a compelling place to start:

Beyond deepening the NFL’s international footprint, these investments could help build long-term pipelines for future teams, talent, and football infrastructure overseas.

The NFL will soon have its own professional flag football league, expected to debut in 2027.

One model we’ve seen from successful emerging leagues is owning the youth infrastructure underneath the sport. LOVB, for example, operates nearly 100 youth volleyball clubs across 111 locations and 27,500+ players alongside its pro league.

32 Equity could pursue the same playbook in flag football by investing in the platforms already building the sport’s youth pipeline:

A standalone NFL private equity fund is still speculative, and it may not even happen.

But to us, it makes a ton of sense.

When you own the most powerful sports property in America, why just be a customer when you can own every piece of what it creates?