A REGISTERED SPORTS INVESTMENT FUND.Built by people who’ve operated inside the game.
The Champion Fund is an SEC-registered interval fund offering managed exposure across the global sports economy — with a focus on opportunities where institutional capital is still underrepresented.
The Operators Who Know
How this industry works
The Champion Fund is managed by a team that combines direct operating experience across every major North American professional sports league, securities-licensed wealth management expertise, and a collective record of raising and deploying capital at institutional scale.
Marques Colston
Founder & Portfolio Manager
Operator and executive with more than a decade of leadership across the NFL, emerging sports leagues, and private capital. Co-owner of three Arena Football League franchises. Advised Arena Football League on strategic partnerships with DraftKings, CBS, William Hill, and Facebook. Strategic Advisor to NFLPA One Team Collective and NFL Players Inc. Advised on $350M+ in client assets as a financial advisor at Janney Montgomery Scott (Series 7 and Series 66 securities licenses). Co-Founder of Venture Playbook at Columbia Business School.
Nick Edwards
Founder & Portfolio Manager
Investment manager and entrepreneur with 15+ years at the intersection of professional sports, private capital, and high-growth businesses. GP and LP experience across venture capital, private equity, SPVs, and growth-stage investments. Has built and led companies from formation through capitalization, scaling, and strategic transactions. Direct operating experience inside the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLS.
Chuck Pettid
Partner
Founding team member and EVP at Republic, the global private markets platform, where he helped raise over $4 billion across alternative assets and personally led $1 billion+ in company raises. Oversaw $200 million+ in acquisitions of regulated fintech infrastructure, including Seedrs and INX, a licensed digital asset exchange. Raised capital for more than a dozen professional sports teams and directed a full acquisition offer for a Premier League club. Board member across Republic entities, Everyrealm, and others. MBA in Finance, Fordham Gabelli School of Business.
The Thesis In Practice
The Champion Fund’s approach isn’t theory. Our position in Ipswich Town FC illustrates the model.
Ipswich Town FC was recently promoted from the EFL Championship to the Premier League. In 2024–25, the Premier League distributed ~$3.6B across its 20 clubs, with each receiving ~$146M–$234M from central TV and commercial deals. In 2025–26, those distributions are projected to exceed $3.8B, with top clubs’ broadcast income approaching ~$270M.
~$1.2B total · ~$50M per club
~$3.6B distributed · ~$146M–$234M per club
>$3.8B · top-club broadcast income ~$270M
Our position in Ipswich was established before the club’s step up to the Premier League. The Fund retains the right to allocate additional capital at pre-promotion terms.
That’s the thesis: off-market opportunities with institutional-quality positioning, acquired before the market reflects what the asset is becoming.
The window is open.
It won’t be forever.
When institutional capital discovers a category and begins pricing it systematically, conditions shift and early positions become harder to access at current terms. That moment is approaching in this space. The window is open today.
Institutional capital has concentrated heavily in marquee domestic franchises, driving valuations that constrain future returns for new capital entering those positions.
Global sports is expanding faster than professional investment infrastructure has followed — in international clubs, media, technology, and fan experience businesses.
Institutional capital is just beginning to systematically discover the broader sports ecosystem that the Champion Fund was built to access.
Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Registered. Regulated.
Built to last.
The Champion Fund is organized as a registered investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 — the same regulatory framework governing the investment industry’s most established funds. That means mandatory SEC oversight, required disclosures, and governance standards built into the structure by law. Liquidity isn’t a feature we added to attract investors. It’s a legal requirement.
Registered Investment Company
Organized under the Investment Company Act of 1940 — the same framework governing the industry's most established funds
Required Public Disclosures
Mandatory SEC reporting and governance — transparency that private funds are not required to provide
Liquidity By Law
Semi-annual repurchase offers — required by SEC regulation, not offered at management's discretion.†
Daily NAV
Investors always know the value of their position with a daily net asset value — not a quarterly estimate.
† The Fund's first offer is scheduled for August 2027, and offers occur each February and August thereafter.
Five Investment Categories.
One managed portfolio.
The Fund deploys capital across five categories of the global sports economy. Each is an area where we believe institutional discipline creates real differentiation.
- Sports Tech
- Teams & Leagues
- Media & Services
- Real Estate & Hospitality
- Thematic Funds
Sports Tech
Growth-stage businesses redefining how sports are played, watched, and monetized globally.
Teams & Leagues
Teams, clubs, leagues, and sports properties with long-term appreciation potential across global markets.
Media & Services
Established media, content, and service businesses with sports adjacency and institutional-quality fundamentals.
Real Estate & Hospitality
Sports-driven real estate — venues, districts, and hospitality, held directly and through operating companies.
Thematic Funds
Curated LP and GP stakes in sector-focused funds with complementary sports ecosystem exposure.
The Fund does not manage to fixed category proportions.†
† See the Prospectus for the Fund's investment strategy and restrictions.
Current portfolio
Four investments currently held in the Fund — each reflecting the thesis of global reach, multi-category exposure, and positioning in parts of the sports ecosystem where institutional capital has not yet fully arrived.
Sports TechSports Illustrated Tickets
SI Tickets is a blockchain-backed digital ticketing platform that has raised over $87 million and secured a $50 million credit facility in 2025, serving professional leagues and clubs globally. The fund’s position reflects direct exposure to the technology infrastructure powering modern fan engagement.
View company
Teams & LeaguesIpswich Town FC
Ipswich Town FC, an English Premier League club, is one of the most storied clubs in English football. Champion Fund's position was acquired prior to promotion, when the club was competing in the EFL Championship, English football's second division. The Fund retains the right to allocate additional capital at pre-promotion terms.
View company
Media & ServicesFathead
Fathead is the market-leading officially licensed sports wall graphics and memorabilia brand, with licensing relationships spanning the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. Acquired in 2023 by a group of former athletes, the company operates at the intersection of sports consumer products and fan culture.
View company
Thematic FundsEmerging
Emerging is a venture capital fund investing in the ‘sportstainment’ economy — immersive, experience-driven businesses including Puttshack, F1 Arcade, and Batbox. The fund’s LP position in Emerging provides exposure to next-generation fan experience businesses at the intersection of sport, entertainment, and real estate.
View companyCommon questions
Public market sports investments trade with equity market volatility and reflect investor sentiment as much as underlying asset value. The Champion Fund invests directly in private sports assets, ventures, and funds — positions not correlated to daily market movements and not accessible through public markets. The 40 Act interval fund structure provides private market exposure that is traditionally not accessible to retail investors, with regulated access and repurchase offers beginning in August 2027.
Beginning in August 2027, the Fund will make semi-annual repurchase offers for 5% of its outstanding Shares at net asset value, in February and August each year.† † If requests exceed the offer, they are fulfilled pro-rata — each investor receives a proportional share of the available pool. Investors should plan for the possibility that complete redemption may require more than one window.
Track records reflect past performance in markets that no longer exist at the same entry points. The Champion Fund is structured to institutional standards from day one — registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, governed and regulated — with the positioning of a founding investor. That combination is unavailable once the fund is no longer new. Past performance is not indicative of future results. There is no guarantee that early investment in this Fund will produce favorable outcomes.
Insights
Winning Is Overrated — Because Revenue Is Structurally Protected
The intuitive belief in sports is that winning drives value. At the top tier of major professional sports, this relationship is surprisingly weak because most revenue is structurally protected.
Read MoreSports Doesn't Compound. It Reprices.
Sports assets do not generate the consistent compounding earnings growth that drives continuous valuation increases in public equity. They operate through a different mechanism: episodic repricing.
Read MoreScarcity Is What Turns Revenue Into Value
Revenue explains cash flow. Scarcity explains valuation. Without scarcity, sports would behave like any other media business — revenue could grow, but competition would erode margins and cap multiples.
Read MoreThe Global Sports Economy Is A Real Asset Class.
This is how you access it.
SEC-regulated. Institutionally structured. Managed by people who know how this industry works — from the field to the front office to the capital-markets infrastructure behind every major transaction. The Champion Fund is built differently.