Ryan Sports Ventures: investing in people that change the game

This week Yanni and Charlie welcome Paul Hourigan onto the podcast to get his view on the world of sports, media and entertainment investment. Paul is partner at Ryan Sports Ventures, the sports investment arm of the Chicago-based Ryan family, which has a sports portfolio that spans interests in the Chicago Bears and AFC Bournemouth, plus tech businesses like Tagboard. During the episode, we learn the strategy behind RSV’s involvement with Bournemouth and the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, Paul explains why he thinks sport’s reliance on sponsorship and rights sales needs a rethink, and we ask for his hot sectors to watch in 2024. Spoiler: AI gets a mention.  Our favourite sections included Paul's reflections on the tailwinds in women's sports, and the growth potential for businesses which are able to take sports data and make it genuinely actionable. Timestamps: 08:30 – The difficulty of focusing on multiple verticals 12:00 – The returns of investing in teams versus technology 19:00 – The background to the AFC Bournemouth deal 26:30 – Learnings from the world of rugby 34:00 – The over-reliance on sponsorship and rights sales 41:00 – The use of AI in sports tech 45:30 – Evaluating what a good return is